We Have A Little Problem
by BumblePrime615
Summary: Sigma 17 is said to be the last rescue team in existence, but what if...they weren't? What if another rescue team crash landed on Earth? What would happen? What brought them here? Optimus, Heatwave, and Ricochet want answers, but they don't know just how many questions they want to be answered...or had to be. The first in the Eta-16 series.
1. Mayday

Chapter One: Mayday

* * *

Normal was a word that Griffin Rock apparently had never heard of. There was always something going on. Mr. Pedipaws was scared of a hard light projection, Mr. Harrison's sunlight powered heli-pack was malfunctioning, or maybe Doc Green's latest invention went haywire...those types of things were the "norm".

With stuff like this going on, how could these people survive? How was Griffin Rock so technologically advanced...but still safe?

The Rescue Bots, of course, were there to help! Everyone on the small island off the coast of Maine had heard of them, seen them, and hailed them as heroes.

But what exactly were they? Where did they come from? Almost nobody knew the truth. The only people that knew were the humans that they worked closest with, the Burns's and the Green's.

These "Rescue Bots" were autonomous robotic organisms from the war-torn planet of Cybertron...also known as Autobots. The Autobots fought for peace and freedom while the Decepticons, their enemy, fought for total control over Cybertron and the destruction of anyone or anything that stood in their way.

The Rescue bots were not called to fight, but instead to continue to help the innocent as the war raged around them. They fought fires, healed citizens, applied engineering and architecture to create a safer environment, and enforced the law. As the war progressed, however, the war became everyone's fight and the Rescue bots either became war machines or died trying to flee.

As far as anyone knows, SIGMA 17, the team on Griffin Rock, is the only surviving team of these battle straying heroes.

They have done some pretty weird and dangerous things in their lifetime, most notably during the war and during their time on Earth, but they continue to serve, save, and protect...no matter the cost.

Their time on Earth has presented them with some unique opportunities to get to know the foreign culture and get to know even more about their allies on a personal level. Little did they know...they would be accepting some...guests...and a whole nother case of experiences and adventures.

* Unknown P.O.V: 7.5 light years away from Earth's orbit -Many years ago- *

" _WE'VE BEEN HIT, WE'VE BEEN HIT,"_ the pilot of the _Cullen_ shouted frantically. I could barely hear her over the scrapes of the hull, the loud roar of the emergency alarm, and the never-ceasing cry of the computer telling us we need to refuel and set course for Cybertron.

" _We're low on energon, the hulls damaged, and the asteroids are only getting closer together! Ricochet, what do we do!"_ My teammates looked at me in fear. I was silent. We couldn't afford to go back to Cybertron, not with everything going on there. We couldn't afford to land, the amount of energon needed to get back into the stars was far more than we could even fathom finding. But we also couldn't afford to waste any more time in our predicament.

The ship rocked back a forth as my pilot, Skyblaze, continued to weave us through the asteroid field. She was good, but her skills could only do so much. My tanks rumbled as I realized that we were also getting low on energon rations. Primus, why couldn't anything work for us just this once.

" _Stargear, see how much damage the hull has taken and fix what you think is necessary, Siren, put all of our remaining energon rations into the ship's tanks, Skyblaze, give us as much time as you can. I'll make sure that all power is rerouted to the thrusters and our debris shield...or what's left of it. When your task is complete, step into your stasis pod and prepare for one long recharge,"_ I decided. My team was too desperate to argue. Siren, our police bot, disappeared to go take care of our energon crisis, Stargear, our engineer, went to take care of the hull, and I dashed to Skyblazes's side.

" _Ricochet, there's no way I can make it through this with us still in one piece,"_ She said as she shut off the noise. The absence of it wasn't very reassuring. To me, the silence was an indicator of something about to go horribly wrong.

" _You can do this Sky. Just think of it as another one of your simulators,"_ I said as I finished rerouting all of our power to the places we needed it most.

" _In my simulators, I'm not about to die!"_ She shouted as she took a hard left to avoid a rock about the size of our ship.

" _I don't know, you've come real close a couple times,"_ I said as she looked at me in annoyance. " _Just fly us through as best as you can. We only need a few more-"_

" _RICOCHET!"_ Stargear screamed. I turned around and what was left of my energon froze. Had it been in a normal circumstance, I wouldn't have freaked out, but it obviously wasn't one. Her leg was badly crushed and was leaking a ton of energon. I ran to her side and laid her down.

" _I fixed the biggest problems, but-"_ She said as I took out my medical kit and stopped the energon flow. She squeezed my servo in pain, but she didn't cry out.

" _Then you did your job. Let's get you to your stasis pod. Quickly,"_ I said as I helped her up. Siren rushed over to my side and helped me carry Star over to her stasis pod. I saw that she also had a few dents in her as well, probably from being tossed around the ship. Sky was doing so many evasive maneuvers, we could barely keep our footing.

" _Ricochet...If we don't make it-"_ Star started to say.

" _We'll make it,"_ I said as we walked her into the pod with difficulty. She looked at me with doubt.

Siren, seeing that Star was set, ran over to her pod and waited for me to close her in.

" _Sky, now!"_ I shouted over to her. She weaved one last time around the debris and got into a small clearing before she sprinted over to her pod and waited for me to shut her in. I gave my team one last look before I shut their pods. I ran over to my pod and set it up. I took one last longing look at the now empty _Cullen_. Sky had done a good job getting us out of that field, but there was still some threats I didn't doubt would cause a problem. I hoped that we would make it out, but there were no guarantees. There was no hope we would make it out completely unscathed.

" _We have to have hope,"_ I chanted quietly. " _Even when all hope is lost."_

I pressed one final button before the stasis pods panel door slid closed. The last thing I saw was darkness.

 _We have to have hope...even when all hope is lost._

* * *

 _ **HELLO PEOPLE!**_ **Welcome or welcome back to this really strange series. I hope you enjoyed and I just want to say a few things before you go.**

 **1) In a few chapters (this one included), I will be dropping a few random references in the middle of the story. I just thought it would be a fun thing to try and it could (potentially) get a few people that want it a shout out. I know I don't have many fans or followers, but...hey who knows what's gonna happen. I'll give the answer to you guys the next chapter so if you catch it, please comment it or just keep what you think the reference is in your mind. (If you ever think its too specific or really hard to find, let me know. Hint: this one has to do with a very special person to a lot fans around the world)**

 **2) This story is not going to be exactly like the original (if you haven't read the original...please don't) so please don't think that it is...cause...well...it isn't...like at all. Except for the premise and the plot...y-you get the point.**

 **3)I am not our lord and savior, Optimus Prime, so please tell me if I got, did, or said anything wrong.**

 **AAAANNNNDDD AS ALWAYS...have a great day/night ;)**


	2. Crash Landing

**HEY EVERYBODY! Just wanted to push this out before the weekend! I will talk a little bit more about an update schedule later, but not before this very very long chapter. Also, if you guessed the reference was the name of the ship (the _Cullen_ ) you are 100% correct-o. For the few of you that do not know, Peter _Cullen_ is the voice actor of Optimus Prime (the original...and best). All that aside, please...enjoy :)**

Chapter Two: Crash Landing

* * *

* Heatwave's P.O.V: Griffin Rock, Earth -Present- *

It was 13 to 10. Cody, Graham, and Chief Burns versus Kade, Frankie, and Dani. Sweat glistened off of both teams foreheads as they continued to try and outmaneuver each other to score another point. We were all cheering on our partners. Or well, my team was. I was cheering on Cody. I didn't need my partner to get an even bigger ego.

"Sooo...what is the point of this game...again?" Blades asked as he continued to watch the "basketball" game besides me.

There was no point. Kade already showed us it wasn't a team exercise whenever he would hog the ball and I didn't really see how the humans could call this fun.

"In this game, a human must throw the orange sphere into one of the hoops. You can get a range of points depending on how far you throw it. Cody said it was for entertainment and team building purposes," Chase explained.

"Come on Kade! Pass it! Your not the only one on this team!" Dani shouted at her ball hogging brother.

"I know, but no one on this 'team' can shoot like I can!" He said as he shot from the furthest line and made it in with a swoosh despite the fact that Cody had been open the whole time he was messing with Graham. "Or look this good while doing it."

I rolled my optics at the thick-headedness of my partner. The two siblings continued to bicker at each other, but after they got a glare from their father, they stopped and continued to play the game.

"Despite the amount of time we already have spent here, the humans still continue to surprise me with their...inventions," Chase said. I nodded my head in agreement.

A little bit more into the game, Kade was just about to steal the ball away from Graham when Graham looked up and stopped dribbling the ball. Kade looked at his brother in confusion.

"W-w-what's that?" He shouted as he pointed to the sky.

"I'm not falling for that," Kade said, ready to pounce at the ball.

"Again?" I asked as I crossed my arms over my chassis. Kade just gave me a look and I shrugged.

"Am I seeing things, or does that look like a meteor?" Dani said as she also looked at the sky and saw what Graham was talking about. I looked at the spot he had been pointing to and saw a small orange streak. I enhanced my vision and saw that it was indeed...a ball of fire. Useful.

"It's headed for Wayward Island," Chief said. Then under his breath said: "Good thing it's uninhabited."

Kade didn't seem to notice or care. He stole the ball from the unsuspecting Graham, making him lose his footing, and proceeded to shoot another three points.

We all looked at him in annoyance.

"What?" He asked innocently.

I looked at Boulder and Chase. Based on the look they had on their faceplates, they were thinking the exact same thing I was. What if that's not a meteor, but instead a spaceship? Or an escape pod? We would need to be there to help or to report another threat to Optimus Prime.

Blades looked at us in confusion before we came to a silent agreement. We needed to see what it was.

"We need to check it out," I spoke out loud. Before I could continue, Kade started to protest.

"Oh come on! It's a rock! We can look at it later. Besides, I have a game to win!" He complained.

"Look, we can finish the game later, but right now we need to see what that thing is. It could be nothing, probably is, but we need to be sure. The last thing we need is more threats falling out of the sky," I said before I turned to Chief Burns. He seemed to understand without needing further explaining. He nodded before we transformed.

"Rescue Bots, roll to the rescue!"

* Third Person P.O.V: Wayward Island, Earth *

Once the Burnses and the Bots reached the island, Blades and Dani took to the sky to see if they could find the crash site. Heatwave ordered the rest of the humans to remain inside the bots in case there was any danger present.

After about 15 minutes of Kade's complaining, Blades commed his position.

"GUYS! You aren't going to believe this!" He shouted as well. Heatwave seemed a little worried at first but realized that there was more excitement in his voice then fear. The Bots made their way through the thick forest and came to the crash site. The crash site, unknown to them, of the only other rescue team left in the universe.

* Heatwave's P.O.V *

The moment we came to the crash site, I knew nothing would be the same again. It was what we all had hoped/feared. A spaceship.

"Whoa!" everyone said collectively. I looked for the insignia, but couldn't find it...not until I got closer. It was covered in dirt and rock, but I brushed it away. A wave of relief and hope washed over me as I recognized the red Autobot insignia. The longer I looked at it, the more excited and hopeful I got.

"Boulder, I am in need of your assistance," Chase said on the other side of the scarlet red and jet black ship. The build was similar to the Sigma, but it was a little larger and had a few more upgrades. It also had a lot more damage to the hull. As I made my way around to the entrance of the ship, I saw some hastily made weld jobs to keep the ship in one piece.

"On three. One...two...THREE!" Boulder exclaimed, making a few nearby birds fly away. The entrance was sealed shut pretty good, but they were able to pry it open. The moment the ramp hit the ground, white steam came pouring out. I signaled my team to stay put just in case there were any Decepticon stranglers. I cautiously stepped in, keeping in mind that I also had a human inside my chassis, so I should only engage in fighting if absolutely necessary.

I continued in and saw that it was almost exactly like the Sigma on the inside as well. There was a center council, a couple of stasis pods, and a lot of rescue gear hanging on the wall, ready to be used. I approached the council and tried to look at the ship's log, but there was no power. I looked at the fuel meter and saw there wasn't a drop of energon left. All of it had been used to get here.

I started to wonder if someone had called them to Earth, just like Optimus did for us, but if anyone did, there was no sign of life other than the beings in the stasis pods.

I looked at the pods and found 4 of the 5 were occupied...by a femme rescue team.

"Whoa," Kade said as we looked at the crew.

"All clear guys. Blades, you've got some work to do," I said as I approached the red pod. Inside was a femme with medic colors, red and white. She was obviously built big enough to take on anyone that tried to get in her way and even in stasis, she looked tough. I looked at the other members and concluded that there was a police bot, an engineer, and an emergency responder. But no firefighter. I found that a little odd, but I knew it wasn't uncommon for a rescue team to be one profession short. They could have been caught, killed, or (and this thought disgusted me) they could have changed sides.

"Whoa!" All the humans said as my team entered the ship. My team looked around in shock too, but for different reasons.

"Looks like we're not the only ones after all," Boulder said as he approached the council. "Must have run out of energon."

He tried to activate the ship's log, but there was nothing. He transferred the data to his monitor somehow and played it. There was no picture only sound.

"This is Eta-si-een-ast-field-low on energon-requesting emergency Autobot assistance," the high pitched voice said frantically, fizzing out at some parts. There wasn't much, but it was enough to know what had happened. The ship had gotten into an asteroid field, which explained the damage to the hull, and to save their limited energon, the crew went into stasis.

Eta-16

They were one of the more well-known rescue teams, also one of the more desired teams. They were said to have one of the best medics and one of the best firefighters on the planet, but they didn't want to get involved in the war for obvious reasons. Once the war got more serious, no one knew what had happened to them. Some bots said that they were still fighting fires and helping citizens, while others said that they had started to fight in the war.

"There are girl Rescue Bots?" Frankie asked excitedly.

"Looks like Blades isn't the only one," Dani said, giggling

"Hey!" Blades wined.

"We call them femmes" Boulder explained as he shut off the recording. "I wonder how they got here."

"Should we wake them up?" Cody asked.

"Chase, go see if there is any emergency energon on this ship. Blades, wake up the medic first. She might be able to help you," I said as I stepped out of his way. He looked at the control panel on the side of the pod, pushed a few buttons, and slowly, white steam started to escape from the pod with a hiss.

* Ricochet's P.O.V *

I felt myself come back online. The moment I did there were a thousand alerts in my processor saying that I was low on energon and another thousand giving me a damage report. I felt week, my body and helm hurt so much, I almost whimpered. Once I onlined fully, my memories of what had happened returned at full force. The asteroids.

My team!

My optics snapped open and was blinded with white light. My optics quickly adjusted to see three mechs standing in front of me. I panicked. Never again Cons!

I somehow lunged forward and tackled the biggest Con. His optics widened before I crashed into him. There were more than three startled gasps as I pinned him and held him down. He, not being weak from long-term stasis, quickly turned and pinned me instead. I struggled against his grip, but it lead to nothing.

"I'm not here to hurt you," He said as he loosened his grip on me a little bit. Once I saw the Autobot insignia on his chest, I stopped struggling. I then opened my servos in surrender as he got off of me. He held his servo out, but I go up without his help. He may be a Bot, but he wasn't getting anything but questions out of me.

"Identify yourselves," I ordered a lot stronger then I felt. The bots seemed to look at each other before the one that looked like a firefighter held out his servo...again. He was the one I tackled.

"I'm Heatwave. Leader of Sigma-17." He looked at me and I could tell he didn't know what to think of me. I didn't know what to think of him either.

"Ricochet. Leader of Eta-16," I said as I shook his servo and examined him. He was bright red with the standard firefighter equipment and he had orange optics that seemed to be examining me as well.

"So we aren't the last ones," I said as I let go of his servo. I knew it was an obvious statement, but it was kind of a relief that we weren't the only Rescue Bots left. A wave of pain and nausea seemed to kick me in the tanks as I doubled over onto my knees. My vision almost seemed to flicker and my body felt like it had lava flowing through it. In short, I was going to get a virus if I didn't refuel and fix myself up.

"Blades! I have acquired three energon cubes," A blue bot said as he rushed into my view. He seemed surprised that I was there, but he quickly got over it and rushed to my side.

"No...take care of the others first," I ordered. Not wanting to argue he and an orange mech went to Stargear's pod. It opened with a hiss and white steam came spilling out. She was about to fall when a green mech caught her. She whimpered in pain, largely because of her leg.

I tried to go over and help, but I felt a strong servo on my shoulder. I looked up at the Bot it belonged to.

"My team can handle it. Just stay still so you don't waste your energon," Heatwave said. I was about to protest when I heard another hiss. I looked back at the others and saw that Star was already taken care of for the most part. Just this once, listen I told myself.

I moved my body so I was in a more comfortable position. My back was against the council and my body was facing my team. I examined the other mechs as they worked on getting my team to at least be able to mobilize.

The green one was obviously an engineer bot. He seemed like the kind of mech that was built big and tough but was actually a softy. He was helping the orange bot fix Stars leg. The orange mech was probably the only one on the team with proper medical training, but by the way he was doing everything, he wasn't an actual medic. Then I looked at the blue bot. He was helping Siren and Sky with their energon. He was a police bot, or at least looked like it. He also seemed to be very patient, especially with Sky, who was just talking non stop about how she 'fearlessly got us through a quantum asteroid field'.

"Sooooooo...I think introductions are in order!" Sky shouted enthusiastically before she threw her empty cube behind her. "I'm Skyblaze, but you can call me Sky!"

She looked expectantly at Siren. With a monotone voice, she responded "Siren."

"Stargear...But you can call me Star," She said as she took another swig of energon from her cube. My tanks rumbled quietly as I watched her refuel.

"My name is Blades, but Blades for short!" The orange mech said loudly. Heatwave looked like he wanted to facepalm so bad.

"Boulder," The green mech said as he gave a small smile.

"Chase," the police bot said in a monotone voice.

"And I'm Heatwave," the fire-bot said as he folded his arms.

An entire rescue team...that was a first. Ever since Cybertron went dark, we Rescue teams have been fighting to stay together, but it was getting increasingly difficult by the cycle. Teams turned on teams, friends turned on friends, and family turned on family. Any team that stayed together were forced by Cybertron HQ to go out and "explore" when in reality, it was the Autobots last ditch effort to save any Bot they could. These Bots must have been very lucky.

Cause we sure weren't...

"Yawn, when are we going home?" a muffled voice said coming from Heatwave's direction. My team looked around, startled at the new source of sound.

"What was that?" Sky asked curiously and with a hint of fear in her voice. Heatwave growled in annoyance and opened his chassis, revealing...something...inside him. He brought his servo to it and it climbed onto it. Judging by its looks and size alone, I could tell that it was an organic.

I looked at Heatwave in confusion as he set it down. I looked at the other bots and saw that they also had the organics in their chassis.

"Organics?" Star asked.

"Hello. My name is Chief Charlie Burns and this is my family. I am the human Chief of Police on Griffin Rock, Earth." The native said as he approached me. I was right.

"Humans huh. I've heard nothing but bad things about your kind," I said as I recalled learning about the organics and how the Autobots were going to great lengths to protect them from the Cons.

How I knew about their history was a little bit...weird to explain. It felt like data that was planted in my processor and I was just supposed to roll with it. Maybe the Cullen scanned the area and linked our processors to Cybertron HQ's database on humans. I didn't know, but knowing how I learned stuff I didn't know about before wasn't a big priority at the moment. What I did know was, based on the history they had, they were a very primitive and violent race.

"We have our bad moments, but we are so much more than what our reputation may lead you to believe," Chief said as he continued to approach me. He stopped just a few feet in front of me. I shifted my self so that I was kneeling in front of him. I could see that he was being honest, but he was also afraid (for some unfathomable reason).

"I'll keep that in mind," I said. For the first time in for what felt like forever, a smile formed on my faceplates.

"Sooo...where are you stationed?" Siren asked as she stood to her full height.

"In a firehouse on an Island called Griffin Rock. You guys will love it there!" A small dark-skinned female called out excitedly. I wasn't too sure about it, but my mentor always said to keep an open mind.

"Before we do anything, we need to get you an Earth-based vehicle mode. Humans aren't exactly all knowing about aliens on their planet." Heatwave said. I looked at the humans and realized what that meant. We would have to use Earth technology. Be Earth technology. I had to stop myself from groaning out loud.

"We will also need to tell Optimus about your arrival," Chase said. My optics widened. They knew him?!

"Op-Optimus Prime?!" Skyblaze said, excitement obvious in her voice. I looked at Heatwave and I could tell that we were going to have one loooong visit here on this planet. On Earth.

* * *

 **I'm thunking of getting out a chapter every Friday. I will try to keep to this "schedule" but I can't make any definite promises (especially because of school) Anyway, thank you for your time (you can't make me give it back...it-IT'S MINE) and I will see you all later. Have a great day/night! Peace :)**


	3. A Whole New World

**WAASSAAP fellow fleshies?! It's FRIDAY! Another chapter comin at ya! Let's see if you can find the reference (Hint: It has to do with Bumblebee)! Enjoy :)**

* * *

Chapter Three: A Whole New World

This planet looked so different from what I was used to. Green flora was everywhere, animals were everywhere, the sky was unrecognizably blue, and a single bright yellow sun occupied the sky. It was actually quite beautiful.

My team and I looked at our surroundings in awe the whole way to their boat. Once we got off, we were told to lock our legs and walk to this really weird building. Why we did so...apparently the humans were too primitive to make any machinery that could move that "complex". I was about to ask more about it, but Star looked at me with the " _Just roll with it"_ glare.

At the building, a ton of automobiles were on display. Not that many of them were really good looking, but there were a few that stood out, like what the humans called an _Urbana 500_ or a _Corvette_ , but none of them were for me. Besides, my alt would also have to be functional. Couldn't do much rescuing with a muscle car.

"Sooo...what about Earth technology that can fly?" Sky asked as she looked at a very old looking truck. I rolled my optics imagining all the trouble Sky would cause when she got a new set of wings. The older human female, whom we learned to be called Dani, looked at her in shock. That shock turned into excitement as she ran in front of Sky.

"You FLY?!" She asked excitedly. Sky nodded as she looked at the human in confusion.

"Of course I fly! You're looking at the best aerial bot in all of Cybertron!" She said confidently.

"Finally, someone who would appreciate some air time." She gave Blades a look. He kind of smiled and gave a small laugh.

They walked over to the other side of the building and I started to wander away from the group, looking for a suitable alt. Scanning for a suitable rescue vehicle in here was like looking for a scraplet on Junk. It seemed almost impossible. Just when I was about to walk back to the group, I spotted one out of the corner of my optic. It was a red and white Hummer H2 rescue vehicle that had the word 'ambulance' written all across the side and in the front.

"Primitive..." I scanned the whole thing and transformed to see how it would feel. It may have been a little primitive, but it wasn't bad at all. It actually felt pretty good to have my wheels on the ground again after all those cycles spent on the _Cullen_. "But functional."

I transformed again and walked over to my team. Siren was now a light blue and white 2017 BMW S1000rr motorcycle with a few police mods, Star was now a light green 2017 Chevy Colorado ZR2 with a cool circuit design on her door and a few mods herself, and Sky was flying in a orange, black, and white Jolly Roger F-14 Tomcat. My team transformed and looked down at their new bodies and I could tell they were happy. The mechs congratulated us on our new bipedal modes and were told we were going to be heading towards their post.

We were told the basic human traffic rules as we drove to what they called the "Firehouse", which apparently was where we were staying until Optimus told us otherwise. And I had plenty of hope that we were not staying on this planet for too long.

I didn't like this planet. It was primitive (rather the tech was), small, and very limiting. I went one mile over the speed limit and Chase called me out on it saying he would 'let me off with a warning'. Not only that, but the little girl, Frankie, had asked to sit in me. I didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with any of the humans, so I said it was ok. When she got in, it felt extremely wrong, despite the fact my seats were meant to be occupied. I was internally squirming, not being used to the fleshy feel on my seats.

Then there was the concern for my team. I had no idea how we were going to live on this planet.

' _Humans aren't exactly all knowing about aliens on their planet,'_ Heatwave had said. We were going to have to be _extremely_ careful we made a compelling robot. I didn't think that Sky could pull it off; she was just too careless that way. And what if one of us did slip up and the primitives found out, would we be safe? Would Optimus help us? Then I started to think generally. Would I even continue to be the leader of my team after this call? Would we all get along?

Truth be told, I was not looking forward to our audience with the Prime.

I was brought out of my thoughts when we started to slow down in front of a small building. It wasn't much, a little red building with a lot of windows, big white garage doors, and a few little security cameras and a bell on it. There was a small space beside it with a few polls on two of the sides and a board of some sort. I was about to ask what they were for when the mechs started to file into the garage. Blades and Sky, being aerialbots went to the roof and took the lift down, separately. It was relatively small on the inside. It was a lot bigger than what I expected, but I knew there had to be more.

My suspicions were proven correct as Heatwave transformed and made his way over to a small control panel. We all let our humans out and transformed. _Primus, I'm glad that's over._ He pulled a lever and the floor, I realized, was actually the top of a lift. We descended into a room that was pretty wide open. There were a few things that made it look like a living space, like a bookshelf, a few crates to sit on, a post to train on, and a weird looking black/brown thing with two rods sticking out of it. When the lift came to a stop we stepped off and looked around a little more.

"Optimus might want to speak to us all. This way," Boulder said as he started to walk to a somewhat hidden room. As we entered, I smiled slightly as I recognized the Cybertronian technology. _Finally something familiar._

Heatwave walked over to the control panel, right in front of the main monitor and pressed a few buttons.

"Rescue force Sigma-17 to Outpost Omega One. Optimus, we have some news," He said. After a few more attempts to reach him, Optimus appeared on the screen. Just seeing the Autobot leader again made me feel very anxious.

"Heatwave, what is the-" he started before he realized there more than the expected four bots. He stopped mid sentence and looked at my team in surprise.

"Rescue force Eta-16 reporting for duty sir," I said seriously as my team stood at attention. I had met him a couple times before, but we never really got to know each other. He only knew me from my mentor, Ratchet. I wouldn't be surprised if he forgot completely about me.

"Another rescue team...a nice surprise," He said as he looked over my team and I. I looked at them and they just looked at me, unsure of what to do. I rolled my optics at them and pointed to them as I said their names.

"I'm Ricochet, and this is Skyblaze, Stargear, and Siren. My team," I said.

"It is an honor to meet you, sir," Siren and Star said at the same time.

"Likewise," he said as he had the closest thing to a smile on his faceplates I had ever seen him have. "I trust Heatwave and his team have been helping you adjust."

"They have been," Siren said looking down at her new bi-mode. "Though I still don't understand why we need to act like mindless robots around such simple creatures."

"If the humans discovered that aliens were living among them, there would be mass panic. To avoid this, we must simply act as one of their machines. Robots in disguise," Optimus briefly explained. Siren nodded in understanding.

"I would only like to speak to Heatwave and Ricochet, alone," He said. Star turned, walked up to me, and gave me look that I interpreted as 'just don't screw this up'. I nodded to her and she left, the rest of my team and the mechs trailing behind her. That left me with the leader of the Autobot army and the only other rescue teams leader.

"How is it that you arrived here Ricochet?" Optimus asked after a small silence. I told him about everything up until we crashed. I told him how we were low on energon, in the middle of nowhere, and trying to avoid Decepticon detection. He and Heatwave looked at me intently as I explained how the _Cullen_ had gotten into an asteroid field and how I had made the desperate call of dumping all of our remaining energon rations into the ships fuel cell and traveling in stasis until someone could find us.

"Next thing I know, I wake up on this planet," I finished. Heatwave looked at Optimus, unsure what this was all leading up to.

"As far as we know, you are the only other surviving rescue team in existence. Because of this, it would be in your best interest if you stay on Griffin Rock and work under Heatwave's leadership and alongside his team."

This was everything I had feared. _He wanted us to stay on Earth, act like tin cans, and work under the leadership of someone I knew nothing about._

"O-Optimus, with all due respect,-" I tried to keep my feild normal as I argued, but it was getting increasingly harder. Besides, he already made up his mind.

"Heatwave, do you accept the temporary assignment of leading Eta-16 on Earth and showing them the human customs so they may be able to one day have an assignment of their own?" He said. Heatwave looked at me and seemed to think about it fo a minute before he responded.

"I accept the assignment."

All of the remaining energon left flowing in me seemed to boil. I clenched my fists just to keep them from shaking, but I knew it was all temporary. Optimus didn't even let me have a say in what was best for _my_ team. _My_ family.

My tanks rumbled loudly, and I put a clenched servo on my midsection. I couldn't even remember the last time I refueled. It seemed like a million years ago. Not wanting to explode in front of the Prime, I used it this as an excuse to leave.

"I'm going to go refuel. Excuse me," I said as I walked/stormed out of the room before they could say anything. My team looked at me curiously as I asked where the energon was. Boulder gave me a prepared cube and I downed it a lot faster than I ever thought possible. I gave him the now empty cube and stormed off to somewhere I could vent my frustration. _I let you down T...and I can't do anything about it._

* Heatwave's P.O.V *

When Ricochet stormed out of the room, I looked at Optimus in confusion.

"Optimus, if you don't mind me asking, why did you cut her off like that?"

"Ricochet once worked under our medical officer, Ratchet. Seeing that rescue teams rarely were in the battles, her time in the war zone could have changed her judgment," He explained. _She worked with Ratchet?! She was in the war?!_ I understood what Optimus meant, war can make a person unstable and act rashly, but I didn't understand how that justified him closing off the conversation like that. I knew there must have been something more to it, something else he knew, but it seemed like he didn't want to tell me about it. "Besides, you have spent more time on Earth as well as with the humans. It would be foolish to place her as leader solely because of her team's reputation."

Before I could say anything, Optimus looked behind him and nodded to someone behind him. He was needed elsewhere. He turned back to me and said, "I must go now. Heatwave, good luck."

And just like that, the screen was dark…leaving me with 7 bots to lead, hundreds of people to protect, countless threats to neutralize, and numerous wackos to capture.

" _Good luck"_

I knew I was going to need it.

* * *

 **"A whole knew woooorld, a dazzling place I-"** ***Cough, cough* Sorry about that.**

 **Anyway, hoped you liked this chapter, it took me a LOOOOONG time to make (currently you are getting a pre-cooked story. I just wanted to make sure I had some sort of publishing schedule. Sorry for the hot and cold spots) so I hope you enjoyed it! YOU BETTER have a good day/night or I will call Metroplex to pound you into the ground (Megatron can tell you about how much that hurts afterwards{FOC, anyone?}) I am way too full of candy right now. ANNNNNYWAYYY: HAVE A...you know ;)**


	4. An Unbreakable Promise

**Last chapters little reference was the Urbana 500 bit at the beginning. That's Bumblebee's alt mode in TF: Prime. I don't really know if I want to keep doing this, but I guess we'll see. There is another one in this chapter soooo...read _carefully..._ or don't...IDC.**

 **WASSSAAAP PEOPLE! Another chapter comin at ya and MAN is this one full of stuff! I hope you enjoy!**

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Chapter Four: A Unbreakable Promise

* Cody's P.O.V *

The bots and I sat outside of the room Heatwave and Ricochet were using to contact Optimus in. Siren, the motorcycle, was pacing nervously beside Star, the truck.

"Stop worrying Siren. What's the worst she can do?" Star said, though, she looked nervous herself.

"Yeah! Besides, she doesn't even have a wrench!" Sky, the jet said with no worry. What that meant, I had no idea, but I had a feeling I didn't want to know.

A few minutes later, Ricochet came storming out of the room. You could practically feel the heat coming off her armor. She was very, _very_ mad.

"Uh-oh." Sky said quietly.

"How did it go?" Siren asked quietly. Ricochet didn't seem to hear her as she asked for a cube of this blue stuff called 'energon'. Boulder had a cube ready for her, and before anyone could say anything, she took it, downed it, said thanks, and walked away.

What could Optimus have said to make her that angry? I felt bad that she already was in a bad mood...and she hadn't even been on Earth for a full day! I looked at the time and got an idea. Before I could go look for her, the emergency alarm blared and everyone gathered in the garage, even Ricochet.

I guess my plan would have to wait. I would make Ricochet feel at home. I just needed the time...and her cooperation.

* Ricochet's P.O.V *

"Remember, the humans don't know we can act by ourselves. Only act when Dani tells you to do something. Keep your legs locked while you walk and keep your movements from being too complex," Heatwave told me for the millionth time. Dani, who was sitting in my driver seat, squirmed uncomfortably as I drove. Still not being used to the flesh feel, I was very uncomfortable as well.

"What's the emergency?" I asked, still irritated from the call with Optimus.

"Forest fire. And it's spreading to a nearby camping ground. They're surrounded," Kade answered. Before I could ask what exactly a forest was, we spotted the flames. There was no doubt in my mind that there would be some injuries. I decided that I would read up on human anatomy once I got back to the firehouse. I may not have been staying, but that didn't mean these organics needed to die because of my Cybertronian pride.

Dani jumped out of me the moment I stopped and ran to a group of dirty, adolescent boys who were carrying their friend. Based on the limping and the way his leg was twisted, I could tell with everything I already knew about organics that his leg was broken.

"Whenever you're ready Dani," I muttered to myself as I watched her struggle to help the wounded boy to my backside. As they got closer, I saw that some of the boys had redder skin than usual. _Burns_ I noted.

While Dani was taking forever, the fire was slowly getting bigger and spreading to the other flora Boulder had called trees. Heatwave and Kade were doing the best they could, but the fire continued to spread. Boulder and Star, who had taken the long way around apparently, came from the sides and started making a fire barrier. Blades and Chief flew over the fire and dropped a ton of water on it with this big claw-like thing. Skyblaze flew over the fire unpiloted and sprayed fire retardants all over the trees.

The fire started to go out in most areas, but there was still a fiery inferno next to one of the buildings. Dani had finally gotten the boy's leg all sanitized and splinted and was about to put the boy in the back, but we all heard a noise. None of us knew what it was but I could tell it wasn't the falling trees. I looked really closely at where I thought the noise had come from. Sadly, I was correct. A middle-aged man came running out of the house but was having difficulty because he was walking with the assistance of two silver rods of metal.

"Heatwave!" I tried calling out to him, but he didn't see the human in time. I looked up more and saw a tree twice as tall as me about to crush the organic. Wasting no time, I transformed and ran to the human.

"Ricochet!" Dani yelled, but I wasn't letting that organic be crushed. The human I was running at, understandably, looked at me in shock and horror and stopped dead in his tracks, the tree right on top of him about to crush him. I side rolled and came up to where my back was to the tree, I grabbed the human, and rolled out again. My back was hot but definitely not enough to damage my protoform. We missed the tree by mere inches. I scanned the human again, not a scratch.

I froze, knowing that this could have put our cover in jeopardy. I slowly put him down, my movements stiff and slow, stood up, locked my legs, put my arms straight at my side, and looked straight ahead.

"Thank you," The man seemed to have said more to himself than to me. Dani came rushing over to his side and she helped him over to the clearing where some of her medical supplies and the boys were.

"How did it know to do that?" One of those adolescent boys asked. I was never going to get used to being called 'it'. I had to bite my glosa to not say or do anything.

"It's new tech. Must be a bug or something," Dani said like she probably had said multiple times. _This 'bug' saved your sorry aft, didn't it?_

"Ricochet, transform and drive these people to the hospital."

"Request acknowledged," I said in a monotone voice as I transformed and opened all of my doors and flashed my lights to signal everyone to get in. The boys climbed in and I drove them to the place Dani had taught me was the hospital. Once I was done dropping off the boys, I commed into Chief and he told me to come back to the firehouse.

After a nice, quiet drive I rolled into the garage. All of the humans had gone upstairs to most likely refuel and recharge, leaving me with bots old and new. They were all sitting on the crates and talking, looking like they were having a blast. There was only one Bot not in the group and, of course, he was going to be the one to pick the first fight with me. Already in a sour mood from earlier, I wasn't going to be the one backing down anytime soon.

"What part of 'keep your movements from being too complex' didn't you understand?" Heatwave growled with obvious anger. All of a sudden, there was tension in the air. The joy-filled voices stopped almost immediately in anticipation of what was coming next. _Just who did he think he was questioning how I_ _saved_ _a native's life?_

"What part of 'rescue bot' don't you understand. Or perhaps you would have liked to see the human lying dead under a tree that _you_ didn't put out," I snapped back as I transformed and looked at him. He was leaning against the wall, one ped on the ground, the other on the wall, his arms crossed. He seemed shocked that I talked back to him, but he quickly got over it.

"I liked what you did there, the rolling. Why didn't you do a flip and a few other tricks while you were at it?" The room fell deadly silent. We stared at each other, neither of us showing weakness.

"It got the job done didn't it?"

"You could have blown our cover."

"While we are stating the obvious, the human could have died. Everything we do could blow our cover," I reasoned. It was true for the most part. One false move or slip up, we're discovered. He didn't seem to follow that logic and continued to argue.

"You could have just pushed the human, and at least tried to hid the fact your not one of their machines." It's almost like the humans didn't matter in this scenario. If I had just pushed him, he (and most definitely me) may not have gotten out of the way without a scratch.

"You could have just done your job faster." At this his other ped slammed down on the ground, making the others jump. I could tell that they were getting very uncomfortable watching this.

"I know how to do my job. Now you on the other hand-"

"What do you know about my job? Besides, it's not like you have to study a whole other species anatomy in order to-"

"If you don't remember-"

"Heatwave!" A new voice said. I looked over and saw Cody. His arms were folded and he was giving Heatwave a disapproving look.

"Come on. She saved Mr. Welker and got the Cub Scouts to the hospital. No one suspected a thing!"

Heatwave continued to stare daggers at me, and I did the same, but he knew better then to snap at the human youngling or continue the somewhat petty argument.

At that, he walked away. If this was what I was going to have to put up with, I didn't want to stay. Leader or not, I was not going to stand for this. I was angry. I was angry at Optimus, I was angry at the Cons that made me have to live _here,_ and I was angry at Primus for not helping me avoid this stupid mess.

Not only that, but I failed T...and I was angry at myself for that.

With a small smirk of victory, I turned around and grabbed the remnants of our debris shield, which Star brought in hopes we could repair it. We were also going to need it. The bots on the opposite side of the room slowly started audible conversations again as I began walking to a small space hidden from everyone's view. Well, almost everyone's view.

"Hey, Ricochet?" I heard Cody call out as he ran to catch up to me.

"Yes, Cody?" I sighed as I turned to him and looked at him patiently.

"What is that?" He asked innocently as he pointed to my project.

"It is...was...our debris shield. It keeps the ship from getting damaged from space rocks," I simplified as much as I could. The look on his face made me regret giving him that information.

"You want to leave don't you?" He asked in a crestfallen voice as he looked down on the ground. I knew that it must have broken his spark…or rather...heart...to hear that I wasn't enjoying my stay. He seemed to be a nice kid...but he also seemed to be a tough kid, so there was no point in lying to him.

"Yes Cody," I answered. His eyes widened and he smiled. He had an idea.

"Come with me," he said turned and walked over to the other side of the bunker to the weird rock surrounded tunnels. I looked at my project and put it down on a crate. _Maybe later_ I told myself. Then I made my way over to Cody.

"Where are we going?" I asked. Cody seemed to ignore me as we went down the narrow tunnel.

"There are hundreds of tunnels like this all under Griffin Rock," He explained. "They're perfect for sneaking out of the firehouse."

"How are these things still standing?" I asked after I looked over the weak and old wood supports. "Don't these ever collapse?"

"They do sometimes, but this tunnel doesn't show any signs of collapsing...so we don't worry."

Before I could ask any more questions, we came out to a clearing. It was nothing much, just a rocky, gravely, treeless area, but what made me stare in awe was the view. The stars shined in the pitch black sky, showing off completely different constellations that I had never seen before. A single small moon seemed to be glowing brightly off in the distance, which was an unfamiliar sight. And then I looked down at the view I couldn't help but admire. Hundreds of lights seemed to make a carpet over the small town. The small town that had accepted me into their home.

"It's beautiful," I said finally after neither of us spoke. A nearby animal called out, making me flinch slightly. Cody seemed to chuckle a little under his breath. "What's so funny?"

"I remember a certain few bots saying the exact same thing." I looked at him, an eyebrow raised. "Heatwave didn't want to stay either. He didn't like that he had to pretend to be a 'tin can' and let Kade take all of the credit."

"A tin can huh?" I gave him a questioning look.

"His words, not mine," Cody said as he took a seat on the cool grey ground. Not wanting him to get cold and dirty, I transformed and opened my passenger door. He smiled at me and hopped in.

"Why do you want to leave?" He asked after a small silence. I didn't want to lie, but I didn't want to say anything regarding how I felt about this planet or this mission. I guess I could talk about my homesickness...at least it wouldn't be lying per say.

"I miss my home-world, Cybertron, and I miss all of the friends that I lost in the war."

"There was a war?" He asked in a completely shocked voice. I looked at him in shock. Then I realized the bots didn't tell him. Of course they wouldn't, the thought of it alone was painful enough.

"A planet-scale civil war."

Silence.

"What was...Cybertron...like...before the war?"

A warm feeling spread throughout my body as I remembered the beauty of my planet. The towering metallic buildings, the awe-inspiring view of the titan moons and the stars, the sound of the engine of the planet humming. The happy civilians bustled about their day, sometimes stopping to say hi to a familiar bot, and they lived their lives like there was never going to be any problems. And there weren't problems for the longest time. That was the beauty of the Golden Age.

"It's beautiful," Cody said. I came out of my daydream and realized that I projected my memories onto my windshield, an ability I acquired to help Ratchet with is more...tedious patients. His eyes were wide open, trying to take in all of the alien sights. After a minute or two, I turned off the projection, not wanting to go into the violence of the war.

"What is it like now?" He asked carefully and slowly. He was about to tell me he didn't need to know, but I felt like he did. I couldn't leave him to wonder. I knew that it would eat at me if I didn't see the outcome of the mentioned chaos.

I turned on my windshield projection again and tried not to think of the horrors of being a medic in this time. No civilians. I wouldn't do that to Cody.

I thought of the same city I was thinking of before, Tyger Pax. Instead of the once majestic structures, there were huge piles of bomb-ridden scrap. Instead of the awe-inspiring moons and stars, the sky was filled with ash and smoke from the never-ending flames that danced on the planet's surface. Then I frowned slightly as I continued to remember the sound of my dying planet. Horrified screams filled my audio receptors, pleas to live, the roar of the flames, and the thunderous booms of the weapons that were fired on the innocent. The place was a total war-zone...a total wasteland.

I turned off my projection and looked at Cody, who looked as white as the paper in the few books I had read. I didn't need to be a medic to know that he was terrified.

"Cody? Are you alright?" I asked after he was silent for a really long time.

"Yeah," He said quietly. "I...I could never imagine that happening to...here."

Now I felt really bad for showing him. He didn't need to think about what his world would look like if it was in total chaos. In total war.

"It will never happen here Cody," I said. He looked down. He must have doubted it. And now with our appearance, he probably doubted it even more. He was a smart kid, he knew that greed and power went a long way. The Great War was only further evidence that it could happen to any type of beings, not just human.

I felt a stab of guilt as turned my attention to the beautiful sight in front of us. The humans had helped me and my team. They had accepted me into their family and into their home when our home was so selfishly taken. I looked at Cody and made a decision. If I wasn't going to stay for the mission or Optimus, I decided I would stay for Cody.

"I would never let that happen."

He looked up, grateful for the comfort. Then he smirked in victory.

"I'm going to hold you to that." _That little..._

I guess now I have a promise to keep. I wouldn't let anything like _that_ happen to Earth or any planet for that matter. I would never let that happen, I would never break that promise.

* * *

 **Technically, I did update this on Friday, just a lot later than normal. Happy Thanksgiving for all the people that celebrate it. Thank you for reading and have a great day/night.**

{Right below is a little rant, so you don't really need to read it **:(** }

 **I am very sad to say that last Monday (I forgot to talk about it in the last update) on the 12 of November of 2018, the great comic book legend _Stan "The Man" Lee_ died at the nice old age of 95. This was definitely a very sad thing to hear and I just wanted to pay a little tribute to him by saying he was the man that made my imagination what it is today. If I EVER had the chance to meet him, I would tell him I wouldn't be the person I am today without his stories and characters. Sorry if this was a little weird, but I just still can't believe that this world creating god is no longer with us. My prayers go out to his family and all of the people that actually worked closely with him. May you rest in peace Stan Lee.**


	5. We Have A Little Problem

**Enjoy :)**

* * *

Chapter Five: We Have A Little Problem...

 _...There was energon everywhere. No amount of medical expertise could fix her. There was nothing I could do to keep her from leaving me, but I still held on tight. There was nothing I could do but to scream at her to stay online._

" _Come on T! Stay with me! SKYBLAZE, CALL FOR HELP!" I shouted frantically as I took out my medical kit and my welder, trying to stay a level-headed medic and not a frantic sister._

 _My big sister's strong grip on my welder stopped me from attempting to close the big hole in her chest, unfairly put there by a Decepticon._

" _R1c0ch-" Her pained voice glitched. "5t0p."_

 _I fought against her grip but finally gave in. She knew nothing could fix her, and it was my job to give hope only if there was hope left to give. In this case, there wasn't even a sliver. We all knew she was going to die. My sisters were all at my side, crying just as much as I was, but they might as well have been invisible._

" _Ricochet...I-I love you," She said before she smiled one last time and her bright blue optics flickered one last time. Her bright red colors turned into the dull and lifeless grey as all of the other shells I had dealt with on the battlefield. I looked at her exposed spark, horrified as I realized she was gone. Her spark, which was once a magnificent blue, became just as grey as the lifeless shell of her once vibrantly colored body._

" _TRAILFIRE!_ _ **NOOO!**_ " _I screamed. My own spark felt like it was being ripped in half, torn apart by the sadness and pure anger of my sister being no more. I screamed as I felt within my spark the bond we had had being severed forcefully. Pain wasn't enough to describe the feeling. It was torture._

" _ **NOOOOOOO!"**_

My optics snapped open and I quickly sat upright. A small yelp escaped me as what felt like a hot knife was plunged into my spark. I put my servo over my spark chamber and tried to not make any more noise. Once the pain subsided, I focused on calming myself down.

I laid my back against the bunker wall and looked around the room, making sure that none of my recharging teammates were onlined from my on-lining. There was only one bot up. Star.

"Morning sleeping beauty," She commented. She looked like she had already been up. She was leaning against the other wall, legs crossed, and her optics glued to a book.

"Morning nerd," I said using the name Kade called Graham when he introduced us.

"Nightmares again huh?" She asked as she closed the book and looked at me, worry in her optics.

I, seeing no point in lying, nodded sadly.

"No matter what I do, I can't stop thinking about her. With everything new that's going on, it's been a little easier, but...in the end...I can't get more than a 4-hour recharge."

She looked at me with a sad expression. She had also been impacted by my sister's death, as well as everyone in Eta-16. Trailfire was our firebot, so we need to do more with less, she was our leader, so I had to assume command (which in some instances was a mistake), and she was our sister, so we all were left grieving (she was my actual sister, but she was more than just a friend to the others).

"Then I suggest you use your time awake wisely. You've got a species to study," She said as she threw a very thick book at me. I caught it and it said in big bolded letters 'HUMAN ANATOMY'. I gave her a questioning look.

"You're going to need to know it," She said as she continued to read her book. I looked closer and saw the title. "Engineering At Its Finest". I rolled my optics at how much of a dork she was. She probably knew everything in that little book, but still read it like it was all new to her, nodding and smiling at parts.

I, reluctantly, started reading the book. After hours and hours of going through _multiple_ books covering _multiple_ different topics, I concluded one thing: Humans are really weird. I honestly didn't know how these natives could live for more than half a century let alone a whole one.

My other teammates started to online when the sun started to rise, around 6:00. The humans could be heard upstairs, Dani and Kade being the loudest out of them. I was about to ask what they were doing when I started to feel the platform I was standing on start to rise. We stopped just in time to see a piece of steaming black food almost hit Kade on the back of his head.

"Kade!" Dani shouted to her brother as he practically jumped onto the fire pole, fell down, and ran behind me, wanting protection from his crazy sister.

"You two are friends...right? Could you please tell her to calm down?!" He said as a really red Dani came down the fire pole. Not wanting to get in between a sibling rivalry (because of bad experiences in doing so) I moved my foot so that he was visible.

"If you pick a fight," I replied as Dani came stomping over, "You better be able to fight it."

"Kade! Dani! Both of you, enough!" The Chief shouted as he and Graham slid down the fire pole. "We have work to do! We can't have this sort of behavior in this team!"

Dani stopped in her tracks, but continued to look at Kade with anger and...embarrassment? Kade gave me a look of annoyance and stomped over to Heatwave.

"Doc Green is requesting our presence at the lab," The Chief continued.

"Doc Green?" Star asked.

"He's the islands lead...and really only...scientist. He's probably going to be responsible for 90% of the rescues we do," Boulder explained. _Great, cause nothing is more exciting than cleaning up after a crazy scientist._

Cody looked at me and gave me a small smile.

"Well, let's not keep the Doc waiting...I have things to do," Kade said as he gave Dani another look. She turned red, but this time, I didn't think that it was from anger.

"Rescue Bots!" Heatwave and I said at the same time. He looked at me in annoyance.

"Sorry...old habit," I said in a fake apologetic voice. He didn't even finish his rally cry before he transformed, let Kade in, and took off down the road, Chase, Boulder, and Blades not far behind. Judging by the large grey clouds, the lack of blinding sun, and the high levels of humidity, it was going to rain.

I looked at Cody and he started walking to the tunnels.

"Since you don't have any drivers, we'll have to take the tunnels."

"It looks like it's about to rain. Why are they driving?" Sky asked. Cody looked at her in confusion.

"Human rain isn't as acidic as on Cybertron. It can't even harm the humans," Star said. Cody looked at me, still confused before I transformed and opened my passenger side door. When he got in, I explained that we had acid rain on Cybertron so acidic it was too dangerous to be out. We drove down the tunnels, but we took a different way than what way Cody took me down last time.

Once we arrived at the 'Lab', which was more like a fortress or castle built into the side of the mountain, we were greeted by Frankie and another dark-skinned man in a white lab coat. When all of the humans were out and we transformed, they ran to meet their human friends.

"Ah! Great to see you again Chief! By Darwin's beard, your team has gotten significantly bigger!" 'Doc Green' said in a very loud voice.

"There's no need to yell Doc," Chief said. Doc looked at him confused.

"What?!" He shouted back.

"Daddy was working with some pretty loud sonar equipment this morning. He'll need a few minutes," Frankie explained. _So this man was also her father huh._

"May I suggest that you wear the appropriate noise-canceling equipment next time, sir. Your health may be put at risk if you do not," Siren said as she looked at the human with worry. The human didn't seem to hear her.

"Where are my manners? Hello! I am Doctor Ezra Green. And you are…" He said, this time a little quieter.

"I'm Skyblaze, this is Stargear, Siren, and Ricochet!" Sky shouted as she pointed to us.

"Incredible!" He said as he looked at us in awe. Then he looked at the mechs. "I thought you said you were the last of your kind."

"Evidently not," Chase responded.

"What was it you brought us out here for Doc?" Graham asked as he adjusted his glasses.

"Well-" he started to say before he was cut off by Frankie.

"Come to see for yourself!" She said as she grabbed Cody and Graham by the hand and practically dragged them to the entrance of the building. Since we were not as small as the humans, we had to settle with looking in the lab through the big windows.

They all filed into the rather spacious area, it only being filled with lab tables filled with equipment, unfinished projects, and multiple broken things I couldn't even name. They all gathered around the most protruding thing in the room, a giant _thing_ that currently had a white sheet over it, ready to be ripped off for a dramatic reveal.

"Ladies and Gentlemen…humans and...not humans...I present to you…" he said before he ripped off the sheet exposing a colorful lump of metal. "The Bio-transmogrifier!"

Everyone looked at him in confusion and we waited for an explanation on how it works.

"This machine, when fully approved by the Maine Safety Administration, will be used by countless scientists to better understand how life works. Allow me to demonstrate" He pulled out a little robotic insect from his pocket. "The machine has been designed to scan the robotic subject, in this case, the bug, and match its appearance to an actual life form. This ensures that we will get the most accurate and precise data."

The machine turned on and Doc placed the little bug onto the machine's surface. A light green light scanned the little bug and a high pitched beep signaled it was finished.

"We can, of course, change it if we need to, but for now, I'll just stick to this species of beetle. Now that it is done scanning, the machine will take its robotic body, create a new, organic body, transfer all of the programs, and destroy the old body. We can, in theory, get the body back, but I still need to do more research and testing." He said as the machine started to print organic tissue onto the space next to the little robot.

"Since all of the information is derived only by the robots appearance, the scan and chosen result will fill in the rest of the desired data (behavior, abilities, etc.). When the print of the physical body is fully completed, the programming, along with all of the desired data, will transfer over to the little new life."

The machine continued to print out the little bug as the doctor turned to his audience.

"This technology, after a couple years of perfecting its programming, will make all our past advances in artificial intelligence look small in comparison, it will further our understanding of biological life, and it could help us figure out how to cure countless diseases," he finished. Everyone started to "oh" and "ah", but I couldn't.

If Doc was successful at doing all that he said he would be able to do, this device was incredibly dangerous. From a medical perspective, the manufactured cure could have a completely different reaction to actual life. From a military standpoint, the machine could manufacture war bread beasts. If this got into the hands of people that had less innocent intentions, there could be an all-out war, them already coming out on top. Then there was just common sense. Just because you create life doesn't mean that you can control it. We Cybertronians were perfect examples of that.

"What do you think Ricochet?" Doc said, probably seeing that I was the only one that hadn't said anything.

"Um…" I said as I thought carefully about what I was going to say and how I was going to say it. Everyone's eyes/optics fell on me.

"Well...it is a very impressive feat of engineering…"

Doc seemed ok with the answer, but he knew I wasn't done.

"However…" I continued. "This machine proposes threats as well as promising advances. From a medical standpoint, a military standpoint, and a common sense standpoint this project is set up for disaster, especially since you implied that there is still a lot that you need to do to perfect the programming."

Everyone was silent for just a moment. Doc Green seemed to take the criticism very well, but I would bet a cube of high grade he was a little crestfallen he already had a person warning him about what could...will...happen.

Before anyone could comment further, the whole room went unexpectedly dark. The only light in the room was the limited light coming from the sun and through the Bot blocked windows. Before any of us could react, the lights came back on just as quickly as they had turned off, leaving everyone confused as to what happened.

"Relax everyone. It was just a power outage," The Chief reasoned. I looked at the dreary grey sky, but I didn't see any lightning. I had read that was usually the reason power outages and blackouts happened. _What else could have caused it?_

The Bio-transmogrifies screen started to flash a bright red warning and started to beep. Doc looked at it curiously before he said: "That's odd."

"What's odd," We all asked worriedly.

"It appears that there is a bug in the system," He said before a literal bug came crawling off of his desk. It was kind of weird because I could have sworn that there was a tool there just a moment prior. The scanner, which I just realized was on, was starting to increase in scan area.

"Everybody out of the lab!" Heatwave and I shouted. He tried to grab the machine, but the window he was trying to grab it through was too small. I put my servo on his shoulder.

"Don't! We don't know what that thing will do to us! Look," I said as I pointed to the machine. Every piece of metal that the scanner's light touched turned into some form of bug. Before all of the humans could get out of the lab safely, the Bio-transmogrifier started to shake violently. Before we could clear out of its blast radius, the machine exploded.

My insides started to feel like they were turning inside out, my processor started to feel like a hammer was constantly pounding on it, and all of my senses seemed to shut down, leaving me in a dark, noiseless void. All of these sensations occurred so fast...too fast. I was forced to go into emergency stasis. I didn't know it then, but that would be the last time I would enter or get out of stasis in a really, really long time.

* * *

 **THANK YOU FOR READING AND I HOPE THAT YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT DAY/NIGHT! :)**


	6. Cry For Help

**Sorry/not sorry about the cliffhanger. I'll let you get right to it. Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

Chapter Six: Cry For Help

* Heatwave's P.O.V *

When I woke up, a wave of pain swept through my entire body like a wildfire. My head hurt, my throat felt dry, and my chest felt like it was on fire.

I could feel things that I had never felt before. I could feel almost every rock under my body, I could feel the slight breeze that caused me to feel a little cold, and I could feel air filling my body.

I opened my eyes and saw grey clouds, still high in the sky, only this time, they were putting on a slight light show. _I haven't been out long_ I figured. It wasn't until I came out of my shock that I realized something was on my stomach. I groaned as I looked down at my chest to see what it was. There was this really weird red stuff on me...it almost looked like Kade's hair.

Whatever was on me started to move and it made a groaning sound. It... _she_ sat up and looked at me. It was a human girl. It took her not even a second to move her body into a position to pin me to the ground. She looked down at me confused, and I probably looked at her the same way.

For a human, she was _very_ beautiful. She had piercing, electric blue eyes, bright long scarlet hair, high cheekbones, and a ton of red freckles all on her smooth tan face. She was wearing tight black pants and a red and white shirt that on one side had a red cross and on the other...an Autobot insignia.

"Who are-" she started, but I cut her off. The cross, the insignia, red and white, _the voice._

"Ricochet?" I asked. She looked at me in complete shock, then looked down at my shirt. Realization seemed to strike her before I could tell her who I was.

"Heatwave?!" She said. She quickly got off of me and started examining me. Then she looked down and examined herself. I did the same thing.

I was wearing a pair of black, baggy pants a red shirt that on one side had the Autobot insignia, just like Ricochets, but unlike Ricochet, I had a fire symbol.

 _We were humans._

"Heatwave! Come on! Where are you?!" A distant voice shouted _. Kade?_

"Over here!" I tried to call out, but my voice failed me. Doubled over and started to do...something. Air came rushing out of my mouth, making a sudden sharp sound. _I was coughing._

Kade came running towards us, clearly out of breath, with fear and uncertainty written all over his face.

"Have you…sorry," he said, catching his breath. "Have you seen a giant red rescue bot anywhere?"

I stood up to my full height, roughly 3 inches taller than him.

"Maybe," I said as I looked down at him. He seemed to place my voice very quickly because his reaction was priceless.

"Heatwave?" He managed to stammer out.

"Not even a full day on this Primus forsaken planet-" Ricochet started to mutter. Kade's attention snapped to her.

"Ricochet?"

"No, it's Michael Bay!" she spat back. He looked at where we had been standing only a few minutes prior to the explosion. Instead of our giant figures though, there were 6 humans and 8 brand new looking rescue vehicles.

"What in Primus's name happened?!" Ricochet shouted before she rushed over to one of the human males. She put her fingers right over their wrist and took their pulse. How she knew to do that, I could only guess. Then she put her ear against his chest.

The man was dressed in a blue shirt with a small police badge symbol on the left side of the shirt, so it didn't take me long to realize that it was Chase. When Ricochet had opened his eyes to see...I don't even know what exactly, he had two sparkling pools of sky blue that went really well with his short black hair. He was almost a sickly pale, and his freckle-free skin and sharp features made it even more concerning.

"He's barely breathing," she said as she tried to wake him up. She pinched the skin on the back of his hand and watched it slowly go back down. "And he's dehydrated."

She looked at Kade and told him to comm in our position and get some water for all of us. He was a little hesitant, not wanting to take any orders, but he figured he wouldn't ignore a medic when that medic knew how to break every single bone in his body while naming them.

After she was done with Chase she went to Siren. She, like Ricochet, had electric blue eyes and high cheekbones. But unlike Ricochet, she was pale, had jet black hair, and had no freckles. Ricochet whispered under her breath "Barely breathing…and dehydrated."

Then she moved on to Star (the light green shirt and circuit symbol gave it away). She had the darkest skin out of the girls, but it was only a dusty brown, a little lighter then Docs or Frankie's skin. She had high cheekbones, hazel eyes and light brown hair that didn't quite reach her shoulders. Ricochet muttered something about Stars leg before she turned to Blades.

His orange shirt and what looked like a propeller symbol gave off a light glow on his super pale skin. He had dirty blond hair that was a little longer than Chase's, but it wasn't nearly as long as the girl's hair. His emerald green eyes, even when he was unconscious, made him look like he was about to smile at any moment.

Boulder had the exact same symbol on his green shirt as Star did. He also had dark skin, like Star, but it was a little darker. He had _really_ short black hair, mud brown eyes, and a small smile that made him look peaceful even when he was out cold.

We had to pull Sky out from under Blades's alt mode. Ricochet muttered something about being glad it was the helicopter before she got to work again. Sky, like her sisters, had high cheekbones and long hair, but she was so pale that Ricochet checked her forehead to make sure she didn't have a virus. Even the white on her orange, black, and white shirt couldn't compare to her skin tone. Her and her jet shaped symbol both seemed to glow unnaturally bright. Her eyes were green as grass and her hair was an extremely light brown with some blond highlights.

Then she moved on to me. I didn't complain, but it felt really weird having her examine me. From what she told me, I had red spikey hair, sapphire blue eyes, and a really tan skin color. Having her explain my look to me made me feel even weirder.

"We all are dehydrated. They are barely breathing, but they'll get over it. Star has a to have a little bit more work done on her leg before it is completely healed, and Boulder has a slightly high temperature, but they should be fine. They should be waking up anytime soon," She reported, thought she didn't look too happy about it. I was about to tell her that I was sorry about what Optimus had said and that it was the only way, but I was cut off by an excited shout.

"Heatwave!" Cody shouted. I turned to look at him but he instead jumped and tackled me to give me a hug. I stumbled back before I wrapped my huge arms around him as well.

"I thought we lost you," he said before he let go and gave me a water bottle. After sort of explaining how swallowing worked, I was able to drink the whole thing very quickly. The moment I was done with it, I felt much better. I was quickly given another one by Ricochet, but I didn't really want it. After giving me a death glare I took it and gulped it down as the Doc gave us the rundown on what he thought just happened.

After explaining everything we could to the Greens about what happened, we heard several grunts and yelps. The others were awake. That's when the Doc explained everything he knew about our little problem. He believed that the machine before it had exploded, was able to scan us somehow and find us human-like. Doc had set the printing time to 2 min for the bug. Since the machine was printing so much in so little time, all of Griffin Rocks power went out for a little a couple of minutes. The power surge and the overheating caused it to explode. The explosion knocked us back into vehicle mode, but our consciousness were already transferred. The machine, he said, was as useless as a white crayon (whatever that meant)

"When can you change us back?" Ricochet asked almost immediately.

"I haven't the faintest idea," Doc responded.

All the science talk with Frankie, Graham, and a semiconscious Boulder and Stargear following the explanation almost gave me another headache.

"Ricochet?" Sky asked a little later, fear in her voice. Ricochet turned to her in annoyance, but then she looked at where Sky was pointing, fear in her eyes too. It was a string of smoke in the distance. Not very big, but it was very big to the eight of us. We didn't know how to rescue as humans. We weren't going to be able to help.

"Come on! Let's go!" Ricochet said as she ran to her alt mode.

"But you don't even know how to drive!" Siren said.

"If I can fly an intergalactic spaceship, I can drive a car," She said before she closed the door. In almost no time she was barreling down the road with the sirens blaring and the lights flashing.

"She knows how to fly a spaceship?" Dani asked.

"Yeah...into a wall," Sky said crossing her arms.

"Come on Heatwave," Kade said as he raced to my alt. I was going to have to talk to him later about who was driving from now on, but the thickening line of smoke told me this wasn't the time.

When we got there, after the longest and most awkward 5 minutes of my life, we got to work. Kade hurriedly showed me how to use a hose and we started to put out the blazing inferno on the small house.

Ricochet was dealing with the family that had lived there, two elders, two middle-aged parents, and three kids, on the other side if the street. Each of them had small white bandages on their arms and legs and a little bit of red skin but none of them seemed to be seriously injured. The female parent was crying hysterically, so much that she was shaking. Ricochet couldn't understand or hear her through all of her sobs and all of the sounds we were all too familiar with in this job.

"Ma'am, you need to calm down. Now tell me-" Ricochet said in a calm, but stern voice as she pulled an orange blanket around the mother's shoulders. Dani had told me once that the blanket was for people experiencing shock. We were all going to need a blanket after the woman's chilling words rang out throughout the whole scene.

"MY BABY IS STILL IN THERE!" She shouted. Ricochet looked at the house and looked at the mother. The whole place went silent, save for the distant rumbling of thunder. That's when we all heard a small, hysterical, high pitch cry coming from the house.

* * *

 **ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER! MWAAAHAHAHAHAHA! Sorry/not sorry. Well, see you all next Friday (I'm always looking forward to it). Have a great day/night. Peace. ;)**


	7. Soft Sides

**Next chapy! Sorry, this is late. Life got in the way. ENJOY!**

* * *

Chapter Seven: Soft Sides

* Ricochet's P.O.V *

The moment I heard the cry, my rescuer instincts kicked in. Time seemed to slow down, the whole world seemed to go quiet. I analyzed the burning house and used my firefighter knowledge to estimate how much time I had left before the building collapsed. _One minute_ I estimated.

I ran to the house, not wasting any of my precious few seconds.

 _0:57_ the timer in my head had begun.

Using the momentum I had gained, I jumped and kicked the door down, right off the hinges. I took a deep breath of fresh air before I entered the house.

 _0:54_

The house must have once been a very decorated and well-organized living space before whatever happened to make the place go up in flames. There were obviously expensive vases holding once beautiful flowers, large walls decorated with professional pictures of the family, and top-notch technology that were still doing their job despite the fire. The only evidence of there ever being younglings present were the few plastic toys that were melting into the pearl white carpet.

I rushed to up the staircase, using the cry to pinpoint where the infant was. When I did find the baby, it was in one of the rooms that hadn't been touched by the flames yet. The baby was in a weird bed type thing with a spinny thing above her. I guessed, using the overused color of pink as evidence, that the baby was a girl.

I rushed to the little girl's side, repeating phrases like "It's alright" and "I'm gonna get you out of here" as I picked her up slowly and carefully.

 _0:40_

Her screaming continued to deafen me, but not to the point where I didn't hear the floor creak under my weight. I took a few steady steps before the loudest creak made me jump as far as I could. I heard the floor crumble, but I didn't look back. As swift as a Turbo Fox, I ran out of the room and down the stairs.

 _0:25_

As I was coming down the stairs, a robot with ruby red optic sensors tried to grab the baby out of my arms. The baby, who had quieted down a little, started to scream loud again. I kicked the robot and it went tumbling down the stairs.

 _0:15_

The flames were only getting worse and worse, despite Kades and Heatwave's efforts to put it out. Just when I was about to sprint out the door, a large wall of fire blocked our way.

 _0:10_

 _0:09_

I took the blanket that was swaddled around the baby and wrapped it around her entire body, including her face.

 _0:04_

"Primus help me," I said before I closed my eyes and jumped through the flames. The heat felt awful against my skin and I was sweating so much I thought I could put the whole fire out with it, but I knew I had to pick my poison. Being a little burnt or being squashed.

 _0:02_

 _0:01_

The house collapsed right when I had jumped through the doorway. Primus seemed to have heard my prayer because the moment the comparably cold air hit my skin, I opened my eyes and braced myself for ground impact. The moment I touched the ground, I wrapped my arms around the baby, pulling her even closer to me, and rolled to take the impact.

 _Ricochet: 1 House fire: 0_

Everyone gasped as I put the infant down for inspection. She was bright red, but I figured it was from all of the crying. Her blanket had a small flame on it, so I quickly, but carefully, ripped it off of her and patted it out. She had stopped crying for the most part and was looking incredibly tired, probably from all of the screaming. Other than a little bruise on her arm from where the robot tried to grab her, she was completely injury free.

I wrapped up the baby in the blanket again, not as tight as before so she could cool off, and picked her up. The family by the ambulance was still there looking like they hadn't moved a bit. The three kids were all crying, their father was trying to comfort them, and the elders were trying to comfort their sobbing daughter.

I walked up to the family and coughed to their attention, a gesture I had seen Dani use once or twice when Kade was talking about some of the rescue missions he had performed. The elders looked up at me and gasped when they saw what...who was in my arms. The mother turned to see what they were looking at and completely stopped moving and crying when she saw me holding her baby. Quicker than I could process, she stood up, cupped her babies face in her hands, and took the baby out of my hands. She started to cry again, but this time, not out of sadness.

"Thank you," She said weakly as she hugged the baby like she was never going to see her again.

"Just doing my job," I said as I started to pack up my medical kit. I looked at the crying kids and got an idea on how to cheer them up. I was going to have to make Heatwave and Kade swear not to tell anyone. No one needed to know I had a soft spot for younglings. I walked over to them and plastered a fake smile on my face.

"Hey, guys! My names...Rico! What are your names?!" I said in an unnaturally high and happy voice. I used my nickname from my sister so it was a little bit more...human.

"Jack," Choked out the oldest boy, probably about 7.

"Sam," Said the boy almost completely identical to his brother, most likely a twin.

"Sari," Said the little girl. She looked like she was only 4 or 5. She then looked down sadly and said: "All of our toys are gone."

"Yeah, I know. But hey, I was thinking that, if it's ok with your...parents, I could give you a ride in the ambulance! Maybe even with the siren on," I said. The moment I said that all of the tears on their face stayed there, forgotten. Their faces all glowed with a renowned joy before they turned to their parents and begged them to let them on. The father smiled at the kids and at me, saying yes. He even asked if he could come along.

"Of course," I said. "I don't have any salv to put on their burns, so maybe we could stop by the hospital if that's alright with you."

"Of course."

I turned to the elders and told them they could come along too, so I made sure all of my patients were happy. They kept saying "Thank you for what you did" and "God bless your soul" as they made their way to the ambulance. Who God was, I didn't know, but I said thank you anyway before I turned to see Heatwave.

He didn't say anything, but I could tell he was impressed. All he did was nod in approval before Kade started to yell at him to get in the truck. I turned around before I could see the argument, and walked to my alt. I drove to the hospital, keeping all of my promises. I had promised to serve, save, and protect, to take care of the people on Griffin Rock, to obey the rules of the road, and to drive to the hospital with the blaring sirens turned on.

* Heatwave's P.O.V *

The hysterical crying stopped. The world seemed to go quietly.

 _An infant was in that fire._

What I could only assume was the mother of the 3, rather 4, children burst into a sobbing fit again, shaking from the sadness and loss as she did so. A feeling of dread and loss spread through us like a virus. We weren't going to be able to save the baby in time. The house was barely standing, and no one was crazy enough to go and try to rescue the infant inside it.

No one except Ricochet.

The spreading virus seemed to have little to no effect on her. She sprinted at lightning speed at the door to the house and kicked the heavy oak door off its hinges.

"RICOCHET!" I shouted to her, but she wasn't listening. I aimed my hose a little higher, but it seemed to have no effect on the fire. It was completely out of control. The crying stopped for a while, making everyone feel even more uneasy. _What if we were already too late? What if Ricochet doesn't make it?_

The fire burst up even higher and the anticipation intensified.

"Everyone stay back!" Kade said at the forming crowd. They backed up and continued to look as helpless as I felt. My eyes were stinging from the heat radiated from the house, but I refused to look away. The smoke also wasn't really helping me. Being nearly brand new to breathing, I was aware of every single breath and how much each and every one of them hurt.

The houses weakened wood supports started to groan, twist, and snap as the mass of the house became too much for them to handle. Not a second after the loudest creek, the entire house came crumbling down. The entire scene went from a blazing orange to a smokey grey.

After what felt like an eternity, the dust settled, the smoke cleared...and Ricochet came into view again, a swaddle of pink blankets in her arms. With her back to me as she put the baby on the ground, careful not to hurt it, and checked the baby for any signs of serious injury. From this distance, she looked perfectly fine. Ricochet looked like she was about to collapse with relief.

"Hey Heatwave," Kade shouted in what sounded like a faraway voice. I looked over at him in annoyance. "Stop swooning over her and help me put the fire out."

After we watered the rubble, Kade said he was going to sift through the rubble and see if he could find the thing that caused the house to go up in flames.

I was about to ask what swooning was, but I was stopped by the sound of excited laughter and screeching. I looked over and, again, looked at Ricochet. She looked at me and I could tell she was in a better mood than before. The kids, who were all crying only seconds before, had the brightest smiles on their faces and were hopping around the ambulance, undoubtedly awaiting a ride. I nodded my head and didn't hide how impressed I was at how brave she had been. Even though she was probably still ticked at Optimus and me, she still was a rescuer at heart, and today was definitely proof of that.

* * *

 **I might edit this a little more, but IDK. No cliffhanger! YEAH! I HOPE YOU ENJOYED and I also hope that you have a great day/night :P**


	8. More Than Meets The Eye

**Sorry for the wait, I have been dealing with no inspiration and a little annoying thing called school. I'll make it up by making this a somewhat longer chapter. I hope you enjoy because it took me months to write this chapter. I WILL be editing it again (along with the entire story), but anyway...enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter Eight: More Than Meets The Eye

* Ricochet's P.O.V *

When I was done cheering up the kids and dropping them off at the hospital, I made my way back to the Firehouse. The distant thunder and lightning still threatened to approach the island, but the only progress the clouds made was sending over some rain. The island looked deserted when it was raining, save for the few kids that wore obnoxious yellow coats and were splashing around in the puddles.

I was in a great mood, despite the fact I was now 3 times smaller and weaker then I had been a few hours ago. Seeing the kids look up to me as their hero really warmed my spark...or rather...heart. And since I knew exactly how they were feeling, It was even cooler to see that they were in a better mood just because they got to ride in a rescue vehicle.

The family had asked if I had wanted dinner over at their hotel place as a form of gratitude, but I politely passed, making up some story about how I was having dinner with some really old friends tonight. It wasn't entirely a lie, so I didn't really feel bad about it.

When I got back to the Firehouse, everyone was sitting around a big screen, engrossed in the story it was showing them. Sky, Blades, Star, and Siren were completely into it, staring into the screen while munching on some weird snacks, but the others were more or less board looking. They looked at the screen with a blank stare and looked at the others like they were waiting for them to change it.

"Hey Ricochet!" Sky said as she got up to greet me, shoving a red bowl in my face. "You have GOT to try this"

She shoved a fistful of the stuff into her mouth and looked at me expectantly.

"What is it?" I said as I picked up a single piece of the...stuff. It was a really weird shape, almost like it was a natural plant or something. It was white with a few bits of gold here and there and it was a little glossy like it had been dipped in a very light colored oil.

"Popcorn!" She responded after she did this weird thing with her jaw and swallowed. She explained that this action was called "chewing" and it helped with the digestive process. I tried it, feeling a little bit awkward about what I was doing, and it actually wasn't that bad.

After a few minutes of standing and watching the "movie", Dani called down "dinner time". We walked up the stairs and found that the kitchen had been modified to fit the 13 of us. On the square table was a stack of boxes that seemed to be producing steam and a few plates. The overpowering smell made my stomach growl. One of the signs that I remembered reading meant I was hungry.

"Take out Pizza!" Kade said excitedly, practically jumping into his seat. When all of us were served this weird yellow, red, and tan colored triangle, we started to dig in. I had to say it, humans made really, really good fuel.

"So Ricochet!" Sky said when she was done inhaling her first slice, red sauce all over her face. "Kade told us that you jumped into a burning building today."

Everyone seemed to stop eating at this, excluding Heatwave, Kade, and (of course) Sky.

"You did what?!" Star asked before I told everybody what had happened from the moment I left the lab to the time I returned the baby back to the mother.

"And then I took them to the hospital," I summarized. Heatwave seemed to smirk, knowing that I was leaving a very significant part out of the summary before he took another monster bite. _The part where I was being a softie._ I just rolled my eyes and picked up another slice of pizza.

"Jumping into a burning building...not something I would think you would do," Chase said, picking off the red toppings on his slice.

"At least she had a little experience," Siren said. I glared at her, but she shrugged it off.

"Mat mu u mean?" Blades asked, his mouth full. Dani glared at him, but he ignored it.

"Ricochet was a firebot!" Sky shared excitedly to the world. Heatwave and Kade looked over at me in surprise.

"A fire bot?!" Cody asked excitedly. "Noble!"

"Best one on Cybertron!" Star said, even though I would never say that was true.

"Then when she was becoming a medic, she was taught by the one and only Ratchet!" Sky said, so excited she started bouncing in her seat. All of the humans looked at her in confusion while the boys looked at me in shock and surprise, except Heatwave. Optimus probably told him that the first day we arrived here.

"Team _Prime_ Ratchet?" Chase asked with the most emotion I had heard out of him yet.

"The one and only," I repeated smiling, remembering my old mentor. He was the best teacher I had ever had the pleasure of having, but I didn't really like to brag about it. Sure it was cool being with somewhat of a celebrity, but when that person was known for being the best person to fix broken people, the job didn't really seem that nice. Especially since we were in the middle of a war. The memories from my time with him seemed to make me lose my appetite.

"Who's Ratchet?" Dani asked.

"One of the best medics on Cybertron. He works with Optimus," Boulder explained.

"We were actually able to meet Ratchet once. He was pretty cool," Siren said excitedly.

"No way!" Blade's exclaimed, this time with his mouth empty.

"Yeah, and Star nearly ran into a support beam running to meet him!" Sky said giggling.

"Yeah, and you nearly flew into a tower," Star said in a defensive tone.

"Well...I…" Sky tried to defend herself, but she had nothing.

"So much for the best pilot on Cybertron," Blades said holding in a laugh. Sky looked gave him a glare. Then she turned back to her pizza, looking hurt.

"Says the _helicopter_ that's afraid of heights," Dani said, making everyone chuckle.

The conversations continued even after everyone was done with their food. We all laughed, had a good time...and eventually we shared our weirdest rescue stories. Our current problem was completely forgotten, all of the pain of being refugees forgotten as well. Despite being completely new to this place, I felt like these people were becoming my family. I felt like this place was starting to feel like home.

* Cody's P.O.V *

This was without a doubt one of the best nights I had ever had. All my friends were safe, though not completely the same, and they were having a great time. Especially Ricochet. The whole time her team was talking about how she was a firefighter like Heatwave and how she was taught by a famous medic, I saw a small smile form on her face. It only got bigger as the conversation started to lead into all of the weird rescues everyone had done.

The conversation went on for so long, we practically spent all night just talking. It was so cool to see everyone having a good time and learning about one another. And what was even cooler was now every single night was going to be like this...well, until Doc makes a machine to reverse the effects, that is. But until then, I was going to enjoy having my friends be able to sit down and enjoy dinner with us.

* Ricochet's P.O.V *

When we were all done with dinner and our very...odd tasting Dani-made cake, I decided I was going to stargaze at the place Cody showed me. When I was a youngling, my sister, Star, and I would go out stargazing right before recharge. It wasn't really a 'fun' thing to do, but I always looked forward to it. Now that we were on a totally different planet from a totally different galaxy, there were going to be totally different constellations. It was going to be interesting...but I knew it wasn't going to be the same without my sisters.

Before I left the Firehouse, Cody had given me something called an iPod. It was a small silver device with a black apple logo with a weird black wire connected to it. He told me it was to listen to music. He told me how to use it before rushing off, leaving me to wonder why he thought I liked music. Maybe he asked Star, who was pretty much adopted into my family on Cybertron (which only consisted of T and me, but still…). She knew me better than I did we were so close. She would have definitely known.

Or maybe he was just that good at seeing what I liked because, after a few songs, I was in love with Earthen music.

There we some bland songs I listened to on my way there, but there were all a ton of fun and crazy songs that were amazing like _What I've Done_ and _New Divide_ by Lincoln Park. The energetic and happy energy I got when I was listing to these songs was refreshing.

When I got to the clifftop, it seemed even more beautiful than when I had come last time. The combination of the music and the beautiful night sky made it really relaxing. I sat and listened to a few more songs and looked at the sight for a few minutes when a voice startled me.

"Ricochet?" A voice asked, making me jump. I took one of the 'earbuds' out and looked back. A tall dark figure stepped into the dim moonlight. _Heatwave_. "Hey."

"Hey," I repeated. "What are you doing here?"

"I usually come here when I need to think," He said as he took a seat.

I paused the music and instantly my music was replaced with the sounds of the night. We both stared at the sky and the city lights, but we really didn't have much to say to each other.

Now that everything wasn't moving at light speed, I realized I wasn't really mad at Heatwave, I was just mad at Optimus. The only time I was mad at Heatwave was when he was trying to start something.

I mean...what was Heatwave going to do about this? Say no? Tell Optimus he didn't want to help his Autobot comrades? Not a chance. Especially if he was still trying to prove something to his leader. His idol. Everyone would have done what he did if they were a respectable Autobot. _Everyone._ Including me.

"What you did...back at the burning house…that was incredibly brave." He said suddenly, taking me out of my thoughts.

"Couldn't have done it without Kade," I replied, knowing that Kade was always the one to swoop in and take all of the credit, even if it was all Heatwave. He seemed to catch the joke and smiled.

"And you I guess." I finished in a mock reluctant tone.

"I didn't do much," He admitted. "I was completely useless today. If we weren't stuck like this, I could have saved the house and the baby no problem."

"Well...we managed. I guess that's all we really could hope for," I said. "Besides, we didn't really have any other option."

After a small silence, he said: "I'm sorry about that too."

I tore my gaze away from the lights and looked at him confused.

"About what?"

"Well...this," He said pointing at my hair. "And...you know...not sticking up for you when Optimus...you know."

Even he didn't feel like talking about it.

"You didn't have any control over this," I said gesturing to my human body. "And _I_ know _you_ didn't have really any form of control when it comes to _Optimus's_ decisions."

"I know...but-"

"But nothing. It's over. He made his decision. You can't be sorry for something you have no control over."

Another silence fell. Not wanting to get any more board then I already was, I asked him what he was thinking about.

"Chief's stressing out about thinking of a story. People are going to get suspicious if their prized bots just suddenly vanishing. On top of that, we're going to have to learn to rescue as humans, we're going to have to learn human customs more than ever, and...well...I'm just worried it's going to be too much."

 _Prioritize._ My sister's voice played in my head.

Whenever I was completely overwhelmed with my studies or when I was learning to become a firefighter, that was the _one_ and only thing she told me.

 _Prioritize._

"Prioritize."

"What?" was his brilliant response.

"Prioritize. Don't do it all at once. Telling Optimus should be the first thing you do. He might have a few good ideas. Then the story…" I said thinking of something the humans would buy. The moment it hit me. I turned my entire body to him and asked: "The humans think we are just state of the art tech, right?"

"Well...yeah?"

"What if it's like...we...malfunctioned or something? And we needed repairs on the mainland?"

"People would be asking why."

I thought about it a little more. "What if when you guys came to our crash site, you were damaged or something? And then _we_ as humans were hired to...you know...fill in?"

He seemed to think about it a little bit before he started nodding.

"Then the rescue work. If we just get used to our bodies and learn our limitations, it would be just like on Cybertron...mostly."

He nodded his head again.

"Customs and culture should come last. If we just keep to ourselves, we should be fine, but if we really need to go out...well...we can always do a little research."

He started to smile a little.

"Now I see why you're the leader of your team. You definitely seem good at it," he complimented.

It was my turn to smile. I also felt my face get increasingly warmer, but I didn't really know what that meant.

"Thanks."

Another silence fell and I could tell he was a lot more relaxed. He almost looked like he wasn't thinking about anything big too, but I knew that wasn't the case. No matter what you did, you never could stop the racing mind of a leader. Not easily anyway.

I knew it wasn't my place to tell him how to lead us from here on out, but it was nice to know he was willing to listen to me. He was a lot more understanding then I pegged him to be, though, I doubted he would stay the same way our entire time together. He was just as stubborn as I was, and I knew that was going to be the sole reason we were going to fight. It was just in our programming.

If we had achieved anything today, it was a mutual understanding that we never could fully solve all of our problems without a little help.

* * *

 **I will be adding on to this chapter later this week. This was a pain to write, but I think that it was worth it. I hope that you enjoyed and I hope that you have a great day/night...oh and HAPPY NEW YEAR!**


	9. Game On

**I am SOOO sorry about the inconsistent upload schedule. A few weeks ago, my excuse was mid-year exams, but for the last few weeks, I was just being lazy (and I am in a state of writer's block...so that's fun). Whatever...ON WITH THE STORY!**

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Chapter Nine: Game On

By the time the sun started to rise, everyone was already up and all of us were still tired. Instead of recharging in vehicle form, like we were used to, we all had to sleep on these things called "cots". Being a medic, I could not help but think they looked a lot like stretchers, which I knew from first-hand experience, were not comfortable at all. Although I was skeptical, I still was able to get some form of sleep. The warmth from the blankets and tiredness from the house fire mission sure was enough to get me into to right mood. When I woke up though, my neck was stiff from sleeping on it wrong and I, once again, was plagued with nightmares.

On the bright side, however, Dani introduced us all to something called coffee. I was a little concerned when Sky was pretty much jumping off the walls when she was done with her cup, but Dani assured us that it was normal for the most part. She explained it was like giving sugar to a child...though that analogy didn't really help.

But whatever it was, it was definitely going to be a lifesaver. Literally in my case. The liquid put me on over-drive and kept me up all morning during my 6:00 to 8:00 patrol shift.

While on patrol, I discovered I still knew how to drive as a human. It wasn't until I was halfway across the island that I realized it and it wasn't until I started paying attention that I realized I wasn't supposed to think about it or I would forget how. I found it a little odd, but I was thankful I didn't have to learn how to drive myself from another human.

When I got back, the Burnses were playing some sort of game on the weird vacant space next to the firehouse I saw earlier. Cody, who was being blocked by Kade for some reason, was constantly bouncing an orange ball on the ground and walking back and forth, like a pacing predator waiting to pounce. When he did, he jerked his head to the left, making Kade jump out of the way, and threw the ball to the right, directly into Graham's open hands.

I got out of my alt and walked over to Star and the rest of the team. The boys were cheering and rooting for their partners while Sky and Siren looked at them in confusion. Star, unsurprisingly, had her nose stuck in a book.

"Hey Star," I said as I took a seat next to her. She glanced at me, then just continue reading.

"What exactly are the Burnses doing?" I asked her. She let out a deep sigh then explained to me they were playing a sport called "basketball". In between the loud cheers, she explained what it was.

"Come on Cody! Take the shoot!" Boulder shouted out before Cody threw the ball at the "basketball hoop" and scored another 2 points. A loud buzzer sounded and it was clear the game was over. 27 to 13. Cody, Graham, and Chief won against Kade, Dani, and Frankie. Blades, Boulder, and Chase went over to congratulate the winners while Heatwave teased Kade, prompting Kade to storm off and pout.

" Mr. Burns? My daddy wanted me to ask you if you all could come to the lab sometime today. He said he just wanted to make sure that the Bots were ok and he wanted to run some tests," Frankie said after she was done laughing (probably at Kade). Since the game was over, everyone started to make their way off the 'court' and go into the firehouse.

"Wait!" Blades shouted. We all looked back at him. "Can we play a game?"

We all looked at him in confusion, but the ball in his hands made us quickly realize what he had said.

"Blades-" I started, but Star was already ahead of me.

"That's a great idea!" She said with genuine enthusiasm. Everyone's gaze shifted from Blades to Star.

"It is?" Sky, Siren, Chase, and I said at the same time.

"Sure it is. It would be a great way to test our physical abilities and our motor skills...not to mention teamwork," She explained.

"I don't know...It might be a good idea," Chief said before he walked over to a little bin filled to the brim with the same orange and black balls the Burnses were playing with earlier. He grabbed one and tossed it to Sky. "Let's see how well you can dribble first. Everyone grab a ball."

Star was about to open up her book and read again, but I quickly snatched the book from her.

"Ah, ah. You got us into this, your coming too." She looked at me stunned and then gave me a pouting look. I helped her up off the ground and put her book right where she was sitting. I was going to make sure I wouldn't have to suffer this alone. After Chief explained (way too briefly) how to do basic basketball stuff, like dribbling, shooting, and passing, he told us how to actually play the game. I thought it was actually fairly simple and I found I was a pretty good shooter.

I saw that Star and Chase were _amazing_ shooters (they made almost every shot on their first try), Sky and Boulder were pretty good at running while dribbling (they never faceplanted like Blades), and Siren and Blades were great defenders. Heatwave didn't really seem to put any effort into what he was going, so he was equally bad at everything, but since he was the leader of the rescue team, the boys made him their team leader. It pretty much was already determined before the game even started it was going to be boys versus girls. _Sigma 1_ 7 versus _Eta 16._

Chief walked into the middle of the court, ball in hand, and Heatwave and I walked into position. Whistle in his mouth, Chief looked at both of us, and already my heart was picking up speed in anticipation. The moment his whistle started to blow and the ball started to leave Chief's hand, I jumped for the ball, already heading for it before Heatwave. I quickly pushed the ball backward towards Sky, the fastest member in the team. The ball though found its way into Blades's hands instead. My team quickly spread out, making sure that every one of the boys was defended. I was guarding Heatwave, Star was guarding Chase, Siren was guarding Boulder, and Sky was trying to block Blades.

The sad thing was, Sky really didn't have to. Blades's hand missed the ball when he was dribbling and Sky was able to snatch it out of the air before quickly making her way across the court to our basket. The roles quickly reversed and the boys were the ones blocking us.

Sky passed it to Siren, then she quickly passed it to Star and she was able to shoot 2 points before the boys were able to recover.

Cody, Dani, Chief, and Graham all cheered from the sidelines. I looked at Heatwave and saw that he had a little bit more interest in winning now. I smiled smugly and jogged back into position.

"How are you so _good_ at it Star?!" Sky asked in amazement as we got into position to play again.

"Well, in order to make a good shot, I calculated that arc of releasing a ball must be above 33 degrees and-" Star started before Sky held up her hands in defeat. Star had already lost her.

"Forget I asked," She mumbled.

It was Heatwave's turn to start. The first thing he did was pass it to Boulder who ran right up to the basket ready to shoot, but Sky was (somehow) able to block the shot, instead of making it bounce right into Chase's empty hands. Or that would have been the case if I hadn't been blocking him. I was able to snatch it fairly quickly and pass it to Sky, who then raced to the other side of the court. Heatwave, with his newfound encouragement, moved to block Sky, but then quickly stole the ball and juked her out before shooting it over back to Chase and me. This time, Chase was slightly faster and was able to catch the ball before I could. He shot from the free-throw line, missed, but caught it again, shoot it again, and made it in.

After a few more minutes, the points started to really tally up. My team was apparently really good at running with the ball and passing while Heatwaves team was really good at shooting and guarding. Although it probably looked like a couple of newbies playing on the outside, it felt like we were all the best of the best in the heat of the moment. All of our moves felt calculated and fluid, our eyes never stayed in one place, our feet were always moving, and our hearts only slowed down when we were transitioning between rounds.

It was Heatwave's turn to start again. All of us, already feeling a little drained, walked into place and waited for him to pass it, but that never happened. He ran. He came barreling down the court and before we could stop him, he jumped. Instead of shooting though, he used all his air time, grabbed onto the rim, and pushed the ball into the net. I was almost going to ask if that was allowed, but since everyone was cheering, I just assumed it was.

"Slam dunk!" Cody and Frankie screamed. Kade, who had appeared out of nowhere a few minutes prior, also clapped and cheered for his partner's cool stunt.

When Mr. Jumpy decided to come down from his high hoop, he landed and gave me a smug smile.

"Bet you can't top that," he said competitively as he crossed his almost glossy arms.

"We'll see about that Hothead," I responded. Smack talk wasn't something I usually did, but man, putting him in his place was going to be _sooo_ worth the change.

"Alright. One more time guys," Chief said before I started again. I dribbled up to a good distance away from the basket and watched Heatwave as he moved to block me. Like a predator studying its prey, I let the ball bounce, watching Heatwave's every move, almost pacing as I did so.

As quickly as I could, I caught the ball and did what Cody did what felt like hours ago. I faked left and let the sky clear before I passed it to a wide awake and open Siren. She shot, missed, and almost caught the rebound, but Blades was a little quicker. I ran back beside Heatwave and watched Blades run to the other side. The moment he stopped he had Siren and Sky blocking him so he desperately passed it to Heatwave who tried to run and dunk again, but this time, I knew what he was doing.

We ran, shoulder to shoulder, and left the ground at the same time, but I had just a _tiny_ bit more momentum than he did. When we were about four feet off the ground, I grabbed the ball from him. The look of surprise and horror on his face was _priceless._ Then I twisted in the air so he couldn't steal back the ball, landed only a few centimeters from the foul line and sprinted for the other side of the court. Knowing that was more or less a one time jump for me, I settled for a half-court shot that ended the game with a satisfying swoosh.

"And the crowd went wild!" Blades shouted, all smiles despite the fact he lost the point. And, indeed, the crowd went wild...so did everyone else even though the game was a tie. 30-30. I saw why the humans had so much fun in these activities...the rush was incredible.

Out of breath and energy, I stood in the middle of the court, just trying to regain myself. Then I turned to look at my main opponent, Heatwave.

"Topped it," I said smugly before I walked over to the Burnses who were all holding out water and towels, not even stopping to savor his expression. They all were talking about how cool it looked and were congratulating me on the epic move I pulled before also congratulating Heatwave on his slam dunk. _Get used to second place Hothead_ I thought (though, apparently, only a few people could really pull that off).

"That definitely was impressive," a familiar sounding Doc Green said from behind us. We turned around and were greeted with the sight of a sleepy Doc Green covered from head to toe in small bugs.

"Ummm...Thanks, Doc...but what…" Sky said before she pointed to all of the bugs.

"OH...well, the machine not only turned the _robot_ into a living bug but all of my other tools as well! Fascinating no?" He said. "Anyway, I came here to ask if I could borrow any tools you might have. The mayor said we could put up a fundraiser at the dance this week, but there is a low chance we will be getting enough money for my supply list there."

I was going to ask "what dance", but I was a little too slow to ask.

"What if we all get jobs?" Siren asked unexpectedly. We all turned to her in surprise and (some of us) in confusion. "I mean...side jobs. Jobs give you money...right? That way we could put all of our earnings to getting our bodies back and pay for the costs of living as humans."

"Well…that could work in theory, but...it's…" Doc tried to explain as a long bug started to crawl up his shirt sleeve.

"It's not that simple Siren," Chief said. "It is a good idea, but working a job takes a lot of time and...well...work. Work that should be saved for any rescue missions."

"I think that we could figure it out," I said before everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Working a low paying human job couldn't be that hard, could it? It would provide us with a little extra currency to pay for the Burnses expenses and it would help Doc pay for his equipment. Besides, it wasn't like the people at the job sites wouldn't understand why we would need to rush out...right?

"We don't need to have three law enforcers on duty every day," Siren continued. "We could have one on duty during the day and one during the night. I have done a little research and found that there are something called "shifts". If I were to take the "night shift" and Chase was to take the "day shift", we could share our rescuing duties that way. Same for everyone else."

"Besides, having two of every type of rescuer would crowd a normal rescue site," Star said. "And like Siren said, we don't need three officers on duty every day. If we do, it's not like we aren't going to be here."

"But what if I don't want to work?" Sky and Blades said at the same time in the same whiny voice.

"Then I guess you don't get to change back," Heatwave said shutting them up instantly.

Chief sighed and looked like he was thinking it over. "I guess we'll have to see."

He turned to Doc Green and said: "We have a few old monitors and power tools in the bunker. Anything else you need Doc?"

"I also came to ask Boulder, Star, and Graham if they could help me build the reversal machine when I have all of the parts of course. I feel only having one pair of hands on this project would definitely not be productive," Doc explained.

"Whenever you need us, Doctor, we will be here," Star assured him. The boys nodded in agreement. Doc yawned again. And I saw that most of the bugs had found their way to the ground. Star seemed to notice too and occupied herself by catching them in a small glass she had used to hydrate herself.

"Why don't you go get some sleep Doc. It looks like you need it," I said before I helped him to his van, making sure I didn't get any bugs on me, and watched him drive back to the lab, Frankie riding her bike slowly behind him. Just when the van was out of earshot, Sky piped up.

"Soooo...what else do humans do for fun?" Sky asked.

"Well...I think we should go to town and get you some clothes to change into, you all stink," Dani said before pinching her nose. I thought that we didn't stink _that_ much, but I wasn't going to argue with getting some more...comfortable and clean garments.

"REALLY?! Can I get some dresses?! And some blue shirts like the ones Judy has in ' _Psychotic Alien In My Garage'_?" Sky squealed as she practically bounced with excitement.

 _Psychotic...what?!_

"Sure," Dani said, though she just looked like she was trying to get her to stop talking. I didn't blame her. Sky smiled hugely and started to dance around, everyone just rolling their eyes at her behavior.

When we went into town, however, it wasn't all smiles and happy times like the basketball game had been.

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 **And that concludes another chapter! (If there is anything wrong with the basketball scene, please tell me. IDK anything about the sport)**

 **Ok...so...I have a question for you all. With the main story already being as long as it is and as full of...stuff as it is...would you guys like to read like a short stories book for this series? Like...It would be like the normal day to day things (adjusting to Earth, team building, etc) maybe a few holidays, the whole job idea stated above, and a few...other...things ;)**

 **Please tell me what you guys think about this idea and if you would be interested in reading this (Just imagine Rico or Heatwave working in customer service. OMG.)**

 **With that idea in mind, please review and have a great day/night!**


	10. 10-31

**I'm tired of saying this, but sorry I haven't been consistently uploading. This writer's block is absolutely terrible, but this shouldn't be an excuse. This chapter will be dealing with a topic I don't know how to write very well (you will see at the end what I am talking about) so sorry if this comes off as too...unrealistic. I'll quit my yapping now. Enjoy!**

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Chapter Ten: 10-31

When Dani was done spraying my girls and me with a sickening amount of something called "perfume" and the boys with "cologne", we went into town, looking for a store with some cheap but decent clothes. After looking into a few different stores, we settled for the one right next to "Cappuccio & Simmons Delli". It was a very small building packed with all types of clothes.

Bright white lights hung from the ceiling and pearl white tile made the store seem even brighter. The clothes, I had noticed, were all very colorful and had very loud designs. We all fanned out after agreeing to give locations if we found something good. I was wondering what type of person would wear such bright shirts when I came across another very peculiar article of clothing. I looked at the big sign above it and I concluded it was called a dress.

It only had one strap, which I found odd, and was as long as me. When I touched it, it flowed like a river and sparkled like a thousand little lights were on its surface. What probably made me fall in love with it was the deep scarlet red color. While I was admiring it, I noticed it had a huge tag on it that said "Dance The Night Away Sale".

"Hey, Ricochet?" Sky asked. I hummed and took my eyes off of the tag and saw she had a whole pile of clothes picked out. She explained to me that we were able to try them on, and then quietly prompted the question of how we did that. Dani quickly and quietly explained to us how we did so and sent Boulder in one of the stalls and Sky into the other one. After finding a couple of shirts that I liked (and putting back all the outfits Sky wanted but I refused to let her have), I tried them on and found that I liked them more than I thought I would.

A little bell chimed and we heard the door shut, indicating there was another customer. One of the two ladies at the front counter said in a sing-songy voice "Good morning". I was about to just return my attention back to helping Dani figure out what coupon combo would get us the cheapest price, but I caught a glimpse of the customer and decided he needed to have an eye on him.

Other than the obvious stench that reeked from the man, the man also had all black clothing despite the rather warm weather outside and a rather large bag. I didn't usually get uneasy when I just saw someone different, but this time, I could feel the evil radiating off of him. Call it battlefield medic instinct.

"Siren," I whispered. There was a reason she was a police bot. She could sniff out a criminal better than anyone could. Her eyes narrowed even before he grabbed a pile full of very expensive looking clothes and tried to run. There must have been some sort of fail-safe installed to keep people from stealing because the moment he tried to open the door it automatically locked. The light above the door glowed a deep, bright red, indicating the place had been locked down. I looked back, about to ask Siren what we should do, but she wasn't there.

The thief looked at the store owner in surprise, and she returned the look. She was just about to pull something out of her desk, maybe a phone or something, but the thief was quicker. He pulled out a black...thing from the inside of his jacket. The lady started to scream and cry, begging for mercy. By the way he was pointing it at the owner and the way he was looking at her with a smug smile, I could tell it was a weapon. _A gun_.

"I didn't want to do this but-"

"Put down your weapon and drop the articles of clothing, sir. You are under arrest!" Siren shouted. The thief, probably out of surprise, dropped the clothing but didn't take his gun off the cashier. The other store owner, who was in her office before, came out and became the thieves new target. I knew that Siren would only jump on the thief when citizens weren't in his line of fire. I signaled Sky and Star to move everyone into the corner, but they just stood there, mouths open wide.

"HEY!" I shouted, trying to distract the thief while I pushed everyone toward the back corner of the store. Sky and Star finally understood what I meant and pushed everyone into the corner. Out of sight, out of trouble. The only one that looked annoyed by this was Heatwave.

The thief looked at me and turned the gun so it was almost pointing to me. The sky was clear. I jumped out of his line of sight and he was thrown off balance by an airborne Siren. The gun went off and my blood went cold. Two horrified screams filled the air. A sound of shattered glass rang in my ears shortly after the gunshot stopped. I could tell by the sound of the two women crying they were still alive. I thanked Primus before the black gun came screeching to a halt a few feet in front of me. I helped myself up and kicked it even further back, not wanting the thief to have any way to get it again. The screaming stopped.

 _Silence_

 _..._

I looked around the clothes rack and saw Siren stand up and quickly drag an unconscious human to the front of the store. He didn't look like he had any obvious injury, so I assumed he was just out cold. The others, curious about the outcome of the fight, all peaked over one of the clothes racks and looked beyond relieved when they saw the passed out baddy.

"Dani, call Chief Burns. We got ourselves a criminal," Siren said. I walked over to her and quickly examined her. She seemed annoyed, but knew the consequences if she didn't let me. All she had was a small bruise on her arm, but I knew in a few minutes, that bruise was going to be a whole lot bigger. After I was done, she looked to see if the two women were alright. They were obviously spooked, but they were perfectly fine. As a form of thanks, they said that they would give us a 70% discount on whatever we were going to buy. Sky started to walk towards the clothes rack again, but I grabbed her shoulder and held her back, saying we just wanted what we already picked.

Heatwave didn't do anything but glare at Siren and Sky for the rest of the time we were there. I didn't want to embarrass Dani, or really myself, in public, so I made a mental note to talk with him later. Once the Chief got to the store, he cuffed the awakening criminal and put him in his old police car. He didn't say a word to us the entire time he was there. Well...he whispered something quickly to Dani and she started giggling. Then she shook her head and said something I couldn't hear. Before I could ask what we were supposed to do now, Chief got in his car and drove away.

"...But I got him! I don't understand why you are so angry with me. I got the guy!" Siren said in an elevated tone. I turned around and was face to face with Sky.

"You might want to come over," she said. _Sky_ saying that was always a bad thing. _Always_. Whether it was admitting there was something wrong or just straight up telling the truth on somethings, Sky was going to be the last person to tell me. I looked behind her and didn't see anything objectively wrong, just Heatwave standing in front of Siren and the others surrounding them both. What made me want to investigate wasn't what they were doing though, it was what they were saying.

"Heatwave," Boulder tried to say before he was curtly told to shut it.

"This is not the way we do things around here Siren," Heatwave was saying. Chase looked ready to defend his partner, but Heatwave continued. "We wait until _after_ the thief leaves before-"

"You are not the law enforcer here Heatwave. If we would have let him escape, we wouldn't have them-," Siren tried to explain, but Heatwave wasn't having any of it.

"You don't have to be an officer to see putting a half baked and dangerous plan into motion is dangerous. We-"

"What do you want her to do Hot Head? Go back in time and do it your way?! _OH_ right, your way wouldn't have accomplished anything!" I said as I stomped over to the group. My girls had a _here we go again_ look and the boys had some degree of it, but none of them did anything to stop me...I mean us.

"At least _our_ way wouldn't have let the gun go off! She could have killed someone!" He argued while gesturing to his boys. At this point, they all had a look that screamed: " _keep us out of this_ ".

" _Our_ way didn't let the criminal get away! We've done this-"

"You could have gotten the humans killed! You may have done it differently on Cybertron Ricochet, but on Earth, we put the humans first. If even one dies on our watch, we would be ashamed to call ourselves Rescuers."

"Look, maybe we should-" Blades started.

" _Zip it Blades!_ " Heatwave and I shouted at the same time.

"You don't think that I know that? I would be ashamed to call myself a rescuer if one of those ladies even got hurt, but you can't just be focused on the civilians, you have to capture the bad guy!"

Before he could even spit out another sentence, I continued.

"And what if he did get away? What would happen if he continued to get let go and come back to harass them? Again, you are too concerned about one thing and you don't see the big picture."

"And what if he were to have just shot the owner when you shouted? What would happen then? We would be having an entirely different conversation now!"

We went on to argue about how Sirens and my way saved a life this time but might not have in other circumstances. He really didn't have an argument. He only had _what if_ scenarios backing him up while I had hundreds of missions like this behind me. I didn't doubt he had a lot of his own, but it was evident that the moment there was a human in the mission, he acted in a completely different way. I didn't know why, but it was driving me up the fragen wall!

My team, his team, and Dini tried to break up the fight, Dani being the only one close to getting us to drop it, but their interventions only fueled the fire. Eventually, one argument turned into another and I could feel myself being cornered. Not in a literal sense...but from an argumentative sense...he was trying to make me step down. In trying to do so, he hit a little too close to home for me. I doubted it was what he was going for, but it still felt like pouring acid on an already terrible mesh wound.

Heatwave said something along the lines of: "It's a wonder your whole team is still alive." Not only was this not true, but it somehow just pushed me over the edge.

We were already screaming each other's faces, so I was close enough to harm him, and so I tried. Before my team could pull Heatwave away from me, I punched him in the gut. _Hard_. Human adrenaline was going through me like crazy and it took all my willpower to stop myself from hitting him again. It took my whole team and Dani to hold me back while it took all of the boys (even Blades) to hold back Heatwave.

I wanted to scream at him and call him the worst names, but I just couldn't find the strength (and breath thanks to Stars bone-crushing hold) to do it. It was like a small spark set of an energon mine. The detonator was small, but the explosion was big. Memories from the _one_ mission I failed started to resurface. The one mission where I failed to save the person that mattered most to me.

He looked beyond confused at me when I felt a tear slide down my cheek. He still looked ticked, but I honestly didn't care about him or his team anymore. I just wanted to leave and deal with my...everything elsewhere.

I finally stopped struggling and my team looked at me with the most mixed emotions ever. Pity, anger, sadness, understanding, and disbelief all rolled up into one dose of guilt for me. They tried to pick me up, but I threw them off of me, making all of them land on their afts as I did so, and turned around. Before I could lose any more of my dignity, I stormed away, towards the Firehouse.

I felt like a coward and I felt like I had let my team down. They didn't want a leader like this! They didn't want a leader that was so emotionally unstable they had to literally hold me back from a fight! And a fight over what? Over words? The guilt started to grow like a virus. Guilt from being in the war grew. Guilt from leaving Cybertron grew. Guilt from not being able to save my sister grew. Guilt from all of the times after her death when I was uncontrollable and terrible to my team...no...my _family_ grew. Guilt for everything that went wrong in my life just grew and grew and grew. All the bottled up emotions from all my life finally came out in one hideous explosion.

I was in such a dramatic state thinking about all the bad in my life I completely forgot about all the good times I had with _all_ the people I had just walked away from. I didn't know it at the moment, but this break down was inevitable. I had just been holding it off ever since Trailfire had died. I was just padding out the time by acting arrogant and sassy. The tear turned into more tears and I felt like my insides were turning into mush. I felt like I couldn't breathe. I didn't need to be a medic to know I was experiencing a severe panic attack.

Guilt was the thing that was walking me to my temporary home. I couldn't face my team like this. By the time I had gotten to the firehouse, my adrenalin high had worn off and it wasn't until I was in the bunker when I finally crashed and broke down completely. I was in the company of only my fear, guilt, uncertainty, and depression once again.

* Heatwave's P.O.V *

The moment I was hit in the gut, I felt three sets of hands holding me back from a fight. I, instinctively of course, struggled against them and wanted to get back at Ricochet. She also looked like she wanted to take me on, but her team _and_ Dani were holding her back also. I didn't know what was happening to my body, but I felt like I could take on the entire Decepticon army with the rush I felt.

The moment I saw a tear falling down her cheek, I went from completely dead set on fighting to extremely confused. ' _I didn't hit her did I?'_ was my first thought, but I quickly figured out that wasn't the reason. The rush I was experiencing wasn't helping me remember what I had said in the heat of the argument, so my brain was going a million miles an hour in circles, like a dog chasing its tail. My new focus made me stop my struggling and as a result, my team's hands retracted. They looked at me in confusion but didn't do/say anything about it.

In the heat of the moment, I remember saying something along the lines of "It's a miracle your team is still alive!". Why that stuck out of all the things I said, I had no idea. The moment I realized though, my stomach decided it wanted to try out gymnastics.

 _The firefighter...the fifth pod_

Not everybody on Eta-16 had made it...one of them didn't make it out of the war alive. After the initial feeling of guilt I felt...I felt pity. I still didn't think she was justified in trying to start something, but I did understand why she was so defensive about her team now. Why she was so quick to jump into a fight with me on the ship, why she was so quick to hate Optimus. She lost someone already, she wasn't going to let that happen again. Judging on how hard she hit and just how defensive she was, this was still a _very_ fresh wound.

She stormed off the moment she was able to throw her team off. They all were pushed to the ground with the force she had behind her. I wanted to ask them what she was going to do now, but they looked just as confused as we were. Everyone had no idea what just happened.

"What in the Allspark was that about?!" Boulder said after making sure I was fine.

The girls stayed silent and just watched their leader storm off.

"Siren what was-" Chase started to ask.

"She was crying, Chase," Blades said. "She wasn't angry guys, she was sad."

We all looked at him doubtfully and he just gave me a small, shy smile. He was always the best at telling what people's emotions were, but this was the only time I doubted him. He pretty much summed it up perfectly when he first meet Dani: "You just can't tell with females."

"We're sorry Heatwave. Are-are you hurt?" Sky finally said, fear present in her voice. All the girls helped each other up and made sure Dani was alright. She was just shaken.

"I'm fine Sky," I said as softly as I could. I walked over to the girls and I could tell they were scared of something, I just didn't know what. Just to make sure that it wasn't me, I told them I never would hold anything against them if Ricochet was the one who made me angry. They said thanks and looked a little less uncertain, but not a whole lot.

"Sooo...what are we going to do now?" Blades asked. Star just looked in the direction Ricochet walked off in. She obviously was worried about her sister/friend...whatever they were.

"How about you all go home...or do whatever you were going to do next, I'll be there in a little bit," I told everyone, Star in particular.

"Where are you going?" Star asked as I made my way for the nearest gym.

"To work off some energy."

* * *

 **This is the first chapter that hasn't ended in a cliff hanger. I am kinda proud of myself. I think I really need to apologize for my lack of consistency. I really have no excuse. I had this entire chapter written like 3 months ago, but I guess I hated it so I didn't publish it. So, just to make sure I know what to add in the next chapter (because this PTSD/panic attack stuff isn't going away anytime soon), please tell me what you think.**

 **Will Heatwave and Ricochet forgive each other? What will Chief think of Ricochet when he finds out what happened? What on all of Earth and Cybertron will this lead to...find out next on ONE OF NATURES MYSTERIES! (Ratchet And Clank 3 reference :D ) Anyway, have a great day/night! Peace!**


	11. A Different Type Of Crash

**HI PEOPLE! IMA BACK! Now, to go over the plan. I have the next 2-3 chapters all ready to go, but I don't want all of them to go up at the same time (I want to stay a few chapters ahead of the curve so I can go back and edit with a fresh pair of eyes). I don't know when I will be updating, but leaving reviews DEFINITELY speeds up the process (then I get motivated and before I know it, I am on a sort of writing high) so please do so (if you want, I'm not your mom). Nova, I told you I would put this out an hour after I typed a reply to your PM, but I forgot...sorry. In this together. I'll do better next time. And for all of you with no N's, O's, V's, or A's in the name, thank you for your understanding and I hope you stick with me (you are all the best). Now...onto an extra-long chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter Eleven: A Different Type of Crash

* Ricochet's P.O.V *

" _ **OPTIMUS! LOOK OUT!"**_

 _ **BOOOOOOOM**_

And just like that, I woke up in cold sweat. The blast echoed in my head as I remembered that particular battle.

 _Simfer_

The battle that distracted the Cons from Tyger Pax...though Bumblebee would tell you differently. I shivered again as I remembered looking into his diming optics. The first sign that a bot was fading. And it was the sweet and innocent Bee that was going to fade this time. He was the last bot I wanted to bury on _that_ battlefield.

Not wanting to think about that _terrible_ day anymore, I shook my head and found I had at some point during my pity party fallen asleep. I sat upright and tried to make my mess of a head of hair fall back into a somewhat reasonable position. I took a _deep_ breath and let out a huge sigh, something that I never would have guessed helped express the emotions I was feeling. It also felt really _really_ good for some reason.

I looked up and at the dark abyss that was the bunker. The humans and mechs had a ton of different... _things_ lying around and they all were either primitive technologies or some sort of weird sentimental object. Dani's purple "stuffed animal" as she called it sat on top of the "pinball machine", Boulder's paints and artsy stuff stayed untouched, Chase's "highly educational documentaries" remained unwatched, and Heatwave's sparing post remained unused and collecting dust. I could tell why the mechs had liked it here. _They felt at home._

 _Home_

I almost rolled my eyes when all of the negative thoughts and feelings came back again. My stomach felt like it was tying itself into knots, my face felt all puffy and warm from all the tears that had been streaming down my face just a few minutes ago, and my emotions went from totally neutral to "I want to commit genocide" levels again.

I wondered if this was what Decepticons felt like. I mean...they still had a sliver of compassion in them...right? They still had a sliver of their former selves still alive somewhere in there right? I didn't know, but if I ever saw another Decepticon, I wasn't sure I would be able to go on with the "good little nurse" title.

Just when I was about to start crying again, one of the TV's lights turned on. It was practically nothing, just a small red light turning on on the corner of the "DVD player", but it was enough to draw my attention to the TV. In particular, the TV screen. It was turned off and just at the right angle that I could see myself, even at a few feet away.

My face and hair were a mess, I was filthy, and I was hugging my knees like my life depended on it. I stared at that reflection for what felt like an eternity. _A little girl falling apart because she wasn't strong enough to hold herself together. A little girl that was stupid to hate the idea of having another person step up and protect her family. A little girl that couldn't stand up and fight or always fought when there was no battle there. A little girl that was falling apart because she was to afraid of facing her fears._

I looked at the TV a few seconds longer and my vision and head started to clear.

' _That isn't what you are, Ricochet,'_ I could practically hear my big sister's voice in my head. ' _You aren't weak, stupid, or alone...you're just a little lost.'_

I smiled slightly as I remembered the rest of the phrase she would always tell younglings whenever they were beating themselves up over needing to be rescued.

"And you need to find your way back. Your way back home."

It felt like a wave had washed away all of the crud I was feeling just a few minutes ago. My sister always was able to do that. Make me feel unstoppable after I had been broken down by the stress and sadness that plagued me and my planet.

All it took was my sister's death to break me. I had tried to hold myself together as long as I could, but today, I finally snapped. I was never going to get over my sister's death and I _definitely_ wasn't going to get over (or forget) all the stuff that happened in the war, but at least I was finally learning to accept we can not let our past control our future. If I let that happen, I will just keep letting my team down over and over again.

I couldn't do that to my family...or my new friends. I had made promises. I _never_ would break another one.

I stood, up with a newfound and very sudden determination burning through me. What did I want to do to burn off all of this new energy surging through me? I wanted to take a jog. Since punching something into scrap wasn't really an option, why not feel like I was punched into scrap instead? I went upstairs and washed my face up a little bit, tied my hair up in what Sky called a "ponytail", and I grabbed a water bottle and my music.

I started to jog and I really felt good doing it. It was a lot more stressful as a human, not having the ability to drive instead of run, but I was done complaining. I couldn't stand listening to myself complain anymore. Being on Earth (and being a human) signified a new life and a new beginning for me. I wasn't going to be as chill as Siren or even as compassionate and peaceful as Star, but I was going to stop being as pathetic as Starscream. I was going to still be very...passionate and opinionated, but not as temperamental. Or at least, I would try.

I jogged into town, making sure that I avoided going the way that Dani had taken us to get into town. I passed a few people as I jogged, all of them either saying hi or just smiling and I could feel myself getting better and better and better. Then I had to look in the direction of a certain "Gym". Through the windows, I could clearly see one customer beating a black bag into a deformed shape. _Heatwave._

I paused halfway through "Kickstart My Heart" by Motley Crue when I saw him. My brain was telling me "Come on, just move along...you know 'Oh...yeah...kickstart my hearart!'". But I was already at the door. I was done running away from my problems. I needed to come face to face with my biggest one before it was too late. Making amends with my mission leader.

If he didn't kill me first.

Just like in the little store we got all of our new clothes from, the moment I opened the door a little bell rang. Heatwave stopped mid-swing before he looked at me. The tension in the air started to rise and I could tell that if the others were here, they would feel even more uncomfortable than usual. If there was anything definite there, it was a craving for...something. Revenge...a fight.

"Hi...um…" Was my ingenious icebreaker. I walked into the gym and the little bell slammed against the door. He just stared at me stone-faced…and silent.

"I'm sorry," I almost whispered to myself, not used to actually mean an apology. Then I cleared my throat and said it louder. "I'm...sorry."

He just continued to look at me, his gaze only softening just a _tiny_ fraction of a fraction. He was shirtless which was...different and I could tell he had been here for a while from all the sweat that glistened off of his...muscular body.

"I'm sorry for getting into that stupid argument and I'm sorry for...you know. Punching you."

His body seemed to relax a little bit, so he didn't look like he was about to pounce on me, but I still wasn't seeing any _real_ results.

"I...um...I just…" I looked down. Silence. We both didn't know what to say.

"Tell me," He simply said in a knowing tone. He must have been thinking. "Why did you do it then?"

I looked back at him and he was taking off his gloves and getting his water bottle. He pointed to one, asking if I wanted one. I shook my head before lifting up the one I was holding. He sat down on a bench and waited. I took out my earbuds and put them and my water bottle down. I had read somewhere in one of my safety and health books that you were supposed to wrap your hands with gauze and athletic tape before putting on boxing gloves. So, I grabbed a roll of the stuff, sat on a bench a few feet from him, took a deep breath, and started my venting.

"I haven't always been the leader of Eta-16," I started while starting to wrap my left hand. "In fact, everyone in my team has been in it a little longer then I have."

…

"Before I joined, Eta-16 was lead by...an Autobot named Trailfire."

I stopped and looked at him. It was obvious he was genuinely curious about the story.

"She was my sister."

Siblings were not really a common thing on Cybertron, so when he heard this, his eyes widened.

"Not split spark, but we were just as inseparable at times. She was a few thousand years older than me. The only _real_ family I had. _She_ was our firefighter. She taught me everything I knew about being one. But...I just didn't feel right about it. After a few disastrous missions, I realized I wanted to be a medic. I was a rescue bot trying to get a battlefield position. Everyone thought it was bad comedy."

I finished wrapping up my left hand and worked on my right.

"No one took me seriously. But no one seemed to keep up with me, so I quickly got to the top of my class and one by one, everyone started taking notice. Eventually, so did Medical Officer Ratchet. He taught me quickly and I worked with him during what would turn out to be the last few small battles on Cybertron, just a few cycles before Simfer and Tyger Pax. I asked if I could be a rescue bot again, and all Ratchet asked was I would be available if he was too understaffed. Optimus pardoned me to get back. He even helped me find and join my sister."

I stood up after I finished with the gauze and started to warm up by stretching my arms.

"I joined my sister, my almost adopted sister, Star, and the rest of my team. We bonded pretty fast and we soon became one of the best rescue teams on any of the Cybertronian colonies. Then, when the war started to get real ugly, Cybertron HQ tried to send us off of Cybertron, but by the time we got the memo, it was already too late. We had to find our own way off."

I got into a position to punch the bag.

"We launched an old rescue ship, the _Cullen,_ " **BANG BANG** "And the Cons got onto our scent."

He leaned forward, not wearing his stone-faced look, but still not one I could read either.

"T and I fought off the Cons while the others tried to escape." **BANG BANG** "None of us could. We were trapped" **BANG BANG** "Outnumbered," **BANG BANG BANG** "And outgunned. But this one twisted son of a glitch was just begging to get a beating, so we gave them a fight." **BANG** **BANG BANG "** Sky tried to get the ship to activate its defense mechanisms, Star and Siren guarded Sky, and my sister and I were going toe to toe with the big guns." **BANG** **BANG BANG**

I stepped back and stretched a little more before jumping on the balls of my feet and getting back into the story and the punching action.

"We were lucky they had vehicon level aiming cause we were able to knock them down without a problem." **BANG BANG BANG** "But this one son of a fragger wasn't as down as we thought. He shot my sister in the chassis and…" **BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG**

I stepped back and got my breathing back to normal. "Killed her."

Now, there was obviously a look of pity and sympathy on his face...but still not forgiveness.

"I made a promise to her that I would lead and protect my team as long as energon flowed through my veins." **BANG BANG BANG** "Then, we got off of Cybertron. We made a few stops at a few planets, but none of them were really big on keeping war refugees." **BANG BANG** "We were given whatever we asked for and shoved out." **BANG BANG** "I wasn't necessarily the best leader during these...times."

He kind of smiled and I stopped punching the bag. The seem had ripped, so the sand was leaking everywhere.

"That sucker punch was a pretty good example of what happened," I said. Heatwave kind of chuckled.

"What's so funny?" I asked. He stood up, started walking towards me, and I started to tense up a little. He stopped right in front of me and unhooked the bag from the ceiling with one hand before throwing it into a pile of other busted open punching bags. I could tell some of them had been there for a little longer than a few hours, so I wasn't really intimidated by him or anything. Or...that's what I told myself. When you have to look up to a person a few inches taller than you and you can see how much stronger they are, you will feel just a _tiny_ bit of intimidation. He stepped back and walked in the direction of a stack of punching bags.

"I remember when I first came to Earth, I thought I had it all figured out. I would lead my team, protect the humans, _and_ impress Optimus."

He tossed me my water bottle and hooked another bag onto the ceiling.

"One mission went sour. A human was hurt, badly. I couldn't do anything but watch Dani struggle to save him."

I looked at him curiously.

"Stuff happens that shouldn't happen, but we need to learn to get past it. I learned this the hard way afterward. I snapped at Kade or something and Chief made sure that I was under control before I went on any missions. If a human ever got hurt because of my lateness, it was my fault for not being there, Chief said. No one ever did get hurt, but just knowing that _I_ could be blamed for a death made me clean up my act a little more."

"Keeping the humans safe became my first priority. Chief taught me how to keep it that way. It sounds like all _you_ need is that person to help you out," He said. He grabbed his empty water bottle and looked at me again.

"You showed me on that clifftop you were a good leader. You showed me you were a good rescuer during your first mission. Now, all you need to work on-" He said as he said before he shot it into the recycle bit. "Is your social skills."

I smiled and nodded my head. We were on the same page after all. I was about to thank him for listening to me and all the scrap that was on my mind, but he _had_ to ruin the moment.

"And your right uppercut."

 _Oh no he didn't_

"Excuse me?" I said as I crossed my arms and looked at him in disbelief. He just grinned. "I'll have you know that I trained with the best battle-tested soldiers and, not to mention, Optimus Prime."

He kind of backed up and waved his hands in mock impressment. I could practically smell the fight coming. This time though, it was going to be a lot more fun.

"Then show me _little nurse_ ," He mocked.

"Be careful what you wish for, _hot head_ ," I spat back, putting my water down.

We got on the sparring mat, got into position, and, before I could even blink, the fight had begun.

* * *

 **This chapter will be edited. I feel like the depression-like state that I wrote needs to have some build-up and needs to be toned down/up a little in some areas.**

 **On another completely different note: I am taking Psychology in school and I am learning about the brain right now. One part of the brain (the hypothalamus) is responsible for our thirst, hunger, and um...hormonal stuff. This got me thinking about how the Bots would behave now that they have this part of the brain and a...well...brain. I might bring this into the story later (anyone that has read the original knows who is going to be affected the most [hint: it's actually 2 people]) or I might make a few one-shots where all of them are getting used to...human emotions and...you know.**

 **If you have no idea what I am talking about, I hope you stick around to find out. Have a good day/night! Peace XD.**


	12. New Beginning

**I'm feeling productive today. Here's another chapter. Bone app the teeth!**

* * *

Chapter Twelve: New Beginning

The fight was on. Heatwave and I advanced towards each other, our brains moving at light speed trying to predict our opponents every move. He was the one to lay the first blow and I had to say, it hurt _a lot_. But that blow was what really got my adrenaline pumping. Right after the initial shock from the hit, I felt nothing but power flow through me.

Just when he was about to hit me again, I quickly dodged and counter struck, making sure I didn't pull my punches. Making sure that every punch...1, 2, 3...all connected and made him know I was not playing around...not really. I stepped back and bounced on my feet. While he regained himself a little bit.

* Heatwave's P.O.V *

She wasn't playing around. I liked it. Finally having a good sparring partner was definitely going to be fun. I quickly advanced again tried to punch her again, but she dodged again and struck me on the chest. I quickly moved to block her and hit her again, this time striking her in the stomach. I made sure to pull my punches a little bit since I still had no idea about how much she could take, but apparently she could take a lot more than I was dealing. She quickly backed up and ran at me again, this time though, she wasn't aiming for my gut. She full-on uppercut me in the face. My feet left the ground from the massive amount of force and I fell on my back.

"Need to work on my uppercut huh."

I got on my knees and tried not to think about the iron-like taste in my mouth.

* Ricochet's P.O.V *

I wasn't worried about making him angry anymore. I just didn't care. Now, in the heat of this fight, I was ready to take him on, and I wasn't going to lose. He spat out a little bit of blood and looked at me with a cold and calculating stare.

He quickly got to his feet and charged at me. Then he full-on tackled me to the ground. I struck him over and over again on the head and tried to worm my way out of his grasp but he had me pinned. I was struck repeatedly in the ribs and he wasn't showing any sign of slowing down. Finally, I was able to somehow flip us over so I was on top. This loosened his grip on my midsection and I started beating on his chest.

* Heatwave's P.O.V *

When she got her feet under her, she was able to flip us over, giving her an advantage. And she took it. Punch after punch landed on my chest, knocking the wind out of me in the process. By now, she had fire in her eyes. After regaining the use of my arms, I tried to block and throw her off, but she easily punched around my arms and pinned my entire torso to the ground with the full weight of her body. She started to slow down her pouches and I took the opportunity to counter strike. For a nanosecond, she was dazed. It was plenty of time to get myself out from under her and on to my feet again. She tried to get up too, but I quickly grabbed her and pinned her to the ground and pinned her hands right above her head.

*Ricochet's P.O.V *

He had won.

I struggled against his grip, but it was no use. He had won again.

"Better luck next time little nurse," He said mockingly.

"Be careful hot head, one of these days you'll be on a stretcher and _I'll_ have to save your aft," I threatened. He got off of me and held out his hand. This time, I took it. He pulled me up and we both downed another water bottle, both of us out of breath.

"Where did you learn to fight?" I asked him, making sure I didn't sound impressed.

"I kind of taught myself...with a few pointers from Optimus," He responded. "And Ricochet. About your sister...I'm sorry."

I sighed.

"Me too," I quietly said as I threw my bottle away. We both picked up our belongings and headed home to the Firehouse. The whole way there we didn't say a word, but there _finally_ wasn't any tension between us. He wasn't ready to pounce into a fight and neither was I. It was really nice.

When we got to the firehouse, the sun was already starting to set. I looked at my iPod and found out it was already 5:30. Time flies I guess.

Siren and Chase were playing a board game, Sky and Blades were playing some sort of game on the TV, and Star was talking to Boulder by a table full of robotic guts.

I almost stopped dead in my tracks after getting a little closer to Star and Boulder's little project.

Staring up at me was the robot that was in the house fire I ran into after we turned into humans. On the table, it looked a lot smaller than what I remembered, but it _definitely_ was the bot.

The deep scarlet optics were offline, but I still had the feeling they were watching me. Waiting to finish what they had started.

Before I could ask what that thing was doing here and why it was completely disassembled, Kade stepped in front of us and had the biggest grin on his fat, smug face.

" _Soooo_...where were you two this whole time," He asked in a weird, mocking almost, tone. I looked at him in confusion before Heatwave answered.

"Just got back from the gym. Unlike you, we work off what we eat."

"Hey!" Kade said before Dani, who had come down to check on us, started laughing.

"At least I'm not too chicken to go ask a certain _someone_ out to the dance," Kade said. Dani almost choked on her laughter and turned bright red. _Blushing_ I remembered reading.

"That's what I thought," Kade said before he smiled victoriously and walked upstairs, Dani following a small-time latter.

Again, there was that talk about a dance. I was about to go run after Dani and ask her about it, but once again, I was needed elsewhere.

"What did the analysis show, Boulder?" Star asked as she absorbed herself into her computer work after checking the gear-trains again. Heatwave and I walked so we were right in front of the two engineers. They didn't seem to see or hear us though.

"Everything seems to be running right. None of the source codes have any errors, all of the motherboards are intact, and the-" Boulder stopped mid-sentence.

Star took her eyes off of the screen and rushed to his side. They had a break in whatever they were doing.

"What is it Boulder?" I asked, he looked at me in surprise and then at Star.

"When Kade was sifting through the rubble he found this cooking bot. Chief asked the owner if they had seen what started the fire and they said they were sure this was what caused it. We asked if we could take a look. Boulder, see if you can find what is was doing..." She looked at her computer. "A day ago."

Boulder typed rapidly on his computer and clicked his mouse a few times. Star looked over his shoulder and whispered something to him.

"There," She said as she pointed at the screen. "The history between 10:00 and 4:00 doesn't exist."

"Could the robot have just turned off?" Heatwave asked. Star thought about it a little bit.

"No. It would have shown up here as powered down." She pointed at the screen again. She went silent, deep in thought.

"Everything is cataloged in here. When repairs and updates were made, what they were, when they were...but this is just blank. It looks like it was tampered with," Boulder explained.

"Deleted," Star corrected.

"So what do you think happened just a glitch?" Heatwave asked.

"I mean...it could have just shut down and-"

"What time did the house fire start?" I asked. Boulder looked at Star, but she nodded at the computer. "Chief said around 2:00."

"It took me about 5 minutes to get there and let's say that the woman told us about the baby 5 minutes after we got there."

Heatwave, Boulder, and Star looked at me confused why I was saying this, but I continued.

"When I was coming down the stairs, this thing tried to grab the baby I was saving."

"You're sure it was this exact one?" Star said.

"Do any of their other robots have red optics?" I said tapping to the red-tinted glass covering the sensors.

"That's another strange thing. They said before the fire, this thing had _blue_ optics."

"Maybe the heat somehow changed the color?" Chase asked. I turned around and saw Siren and Chase had completely abandoned the game they were playing. "Like when you burn regular glass it gets a brown-like color."

"That's because of soot. There is no residue on this glass. It's like the glass was replaced."

"Did the robot have lasers and nobody knew about it?" Sky asked as she and Blades also joined the conversation. Nobody answered the obviously dumb question.

All of a sudden, another computer monitor brightened and made a light _ding_ sound.

"Boulder-" Star started.

"On it," he said as he walked to another little setup and sat on a little stool. This table however only had a dual monitor set. No more Robo-guts were insight.

"Star. Look at this line here…"

Star gave Boulder a curious look and looked over his shoulder.

"It's a lock."

"I know it is but if it's a lock then why did the security system work?"

Sky coughed into her hand and looked at Star expectantly. Star looked at her, rolled her eyes, and explained.

"Remember that little store we went to? Well, the owners were putting a new security function so when they had to repair their terrible security cameras, they would be able to hold the thief in the store and alert Chief Burns. There were a ton of concerns about the owner's safety if...well what happened today was a great example. They were literally locking themselves in with an armed criminal."

"Then what is this about a lock?" Blades asked.

"Since the system was already installed, a few programmers had to put a lock of sorts in the code to make sure there was no way it would activate before the system was completely approved."

"And these programmers wanted to know exactly at what time it malfunctioned so they could take a look at where they went wrong." Boulder looked back at us. "And guess what is missing."

"The time," Blades said. Boulder nodded.

"Do you think these are the exact same problems?" I asked.

"It is highly unlikely these are the exact same bugs or malfunctions, but...I wouldn't rule the possibility out entirely," Star said.

"What if its a virus that bounces around…like Vigil?" Blades asked.

"A virus would not be as complex as Vigil," Chase said. "Vigil was programmed by Doctor Green to protect Griffin Rock, this virus, if it is, in fact, the same one, had no programmed motives. Therefore-"

"To harm people? To keep us busy while the programmer stole or did something?" Heatwave asked. "Evan and Myles could have easily made this to cover something up."

"There have not been any reports of stolen property since the day the girls arrived," Chase said.

A few more possibilities and theories were thrown around but none of them stuck.

"How about we wait?" I asked. "If this _is_ a person using this to get away with something, there is going to be a report that follows. Whether it was something stolen or someone hurt, something is bound to turn up. If it is a _virus_ , we will find out how it has been getting around and maybe we can even create a way to find and destroy it."

Everyone was silent and thinking.

"Heatwave?" I asked. My girls looked at me in shock. I didn't dare move my gaze off of him. He looked like he wasn't too sure, but he nodded.

"If waiting gets us what we need...we will wait," he said. "But in the meantime, Boulder and Star, see if you can figure out anything more about this virus. Siren and Chase, keep an ear open if something comes in that could be like this. Sky and Blades, you are on patrol for the next few days. The sharpest eyes are ones in the sky. Maybe the pattern looks random on the ground, but...just keep an eye out."

"What about you guys?" Sky asked, pointing to Heatwave and me.

"I'll go on patrol with Sky and Blades and be there in case any help on the ground is needed," I said.

"And I'll talk to Chief Burns about all of this."

I looked at my iPod again and it read back to me 5:40. If we were going to have to wait, I didn't think it would take very long.

Boy was I right.

* * *

 **Well...I hope you enjoyed. I will see you all later! Have a great day/night. Peace.**


	13. The Last Coincidence

**I have re-written this thing so many times, I kinda forgot this existed for a moment. I love how I am at THIS point in my story (SO CLOSE TO THE END) and I am starting to fall apart. It's sad really. Aywnay, enjoy!**

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Chapter Thirteen: The Last Coincidence

Heatwave's P.O.V *

"We'll have to alert the island. The more people we have looking out for this virus or...whatever else it could be...the better," Chief said, his head in his hands. He was obviously stressed and tired. I wanted to drop the subject too (for both of our sakes), but if there wasn't a clear plan, we weren't going to be able to do anything.

"If we do that Chief, we could draw well...unwanted attention. Besides...if this is just a hacking scheme, we might scare the criminal into hiding. Then we will never find him," I said from the other side of his big oak desk.

"Your right," he sighed. "What were you thinking?"

"We were thinking we just waited and saw if there were any more attacks. This person, if someone is behind this, is bound to slip up. And if it isn't a person, we might be able to figure out what this thing is doing and where it could strike next," I said, starting to feel a little tired as well.

"Maybe. I'll keep an eye out when I'm on patrol tomorrow," he said before he yawned.

"Ricochet volunteered for patrol and I gave Blades and Sky patrol for the next week. Don't overwork yourself Chief...and get some sleep," I said as I got up and headed for the door.

"Thank you. And Heatwave?" I paused before my fingers reached the door handle.

"What happened earlier today? Dani told us there was quite a fight between you and Ricochet."

"She just got a little defensive and we got into an argument. I said something that she took the wrong way and she well...acted on it," I answered, not sure if I should...elaborate.

"And? Where were you two? I saw you two walked back together."

"We just talked it out." I almost smiled at _talked_. Chief looked satisfied with my answer and sat back in his chair.

"Alright, goodnight Heatwave."

"Night." I opened the door and slipped out into the hallway.

"Heatwave?" I closed the door and turned to see Cody, who was dressed in his night clothing. He walked up to me and gave me a hug. I hugged him back.

"Goodnight," he said before he let go and bounded for his room. I was never going to get used to _being able_ to give him a hug and I knew the moment we got back to our old bodies, I was going to miss it.

"Night," I called out before his door closed and his light turned off. I smiled to myself as I walked down the hallway and thought about all the things Cody and I could do now. And all the things I could do to Kade to get back at him. My smile widened even more at the thought.

Dani caught me in the hall and told me I needed to take a shower, so, after she awkwardly explained how I was supposed to do it, I took one. It felt _amazing_ and I felt a ton better afterward. I kinda felt bad for pushing Kade to hurry up whenever he took one. _Kinda._

I put on the clothes that Dani had put out for me and made my way down to the garage to call it a day. The moment I stepped onto the elevator to go down to the bunker though, the blaring emergency alarm decided to sing, scaring the sleepy feeling right out of me. I dashed off the elevator before it went down and turned on my comm.

"...robotic dogs attacking Mr. Witwicky. He emphasized that their eyes changed from green to red. This could be what you guys were looking for," Chief said tiredly. Just when he was finished talking, the elevator opened and Ricochet, Siren, Sky, Star, Boulder, Blades, and Chase came pouring out like clowns out of a clown car. We all rushed to our vehicles, eager to see if we could find answers.

"Let's roll," Ricochet said before I could. I was going to have to talk to her later about saying the rallying cry later. Right now, we had a few dogs to chase. Kade, Dani, Graham, and Chief all came down and quickly got into their respective partner's vehicle and we all took off down the road.

It didn't take us long to find the dogs, and it definitely didn't take us long to hear Mr. Witwicky screaming at us to hurry up and the dogs to stay away from him. He was literally hanging in there all while we surrounded him. He was hanging from a tree, one arm flailing around, and the other hanging onto a branch 15 feet in the air. There was a dog trying to climb up one side, making tree dust go everywhere, one was just nipping at Mr. Witwicky's dangling feet, and another one just barking and looking his owner with scarlet eyes.

"Well...anyone have any peanut butter?" Sky asked while she hovered in the sky. I rolled my eyes and stopped my alt.

"They aren't real dogs Sky...besides who would?" Ricochet asked.

"Kade probably has some somewhere under my seats," I remarked, getting a glare from my passenger.

"Maybe we can use that to our advantage," Siren said, ignoring what I said. She got off of her motorcycle and appeared to rummage through some sort of bag attached to her alt. She kept her movements slow, but I still couldn't keep myself from tensing.

"Siren, don't make any sudden movements. The last thing we need is you put in mortal danger...again," I said. I understood that she was trying to do her job, but I thought she was taking a lot of unnecessary risks. One false move and she could be ripped to bits. Not to mention what would happen to her if what she was doing only worsened the scenario. I didn't want to bury two bodies.

"Alright, Heatwave," She said almost reluctantly. She grabbed what she wanted and started to 'tiptoe' to back to the seat of her alt.

 _ **SNAP**_

A twig snapped under her foot; the sound seemed to echo for an unimaginable amount of time.

The dogs all stopped. Everything was still. They all looked at Mr. Witwicky, then at Siren, then at Mr. Witwicky, then at Siren again in an almost comical fashion. I could see the gears in there head-turning: "One snack up a tree, or one right on a silver plater?". We all knew what their choice was going to be.

"Siren, get out of here. Now!" Ricochet and I ordered at the same time. Siren's eyes widened when she realized she was their new target. She wasted no time getting on her alt. Instead of turning and fleeing though, she turned her police siren and lights. She had the full attention of the dogs. Not even the next second, she was peeling down the street, the dogs sprinting after her at unimaginable speeds.

"Hey Boulder, you know that little...thing you gave me...the one that makes lightning go into humans?" Siren asked over the comms.

"Umm...sure," He responded, sounding like he wanted to correct the many things wrong in that sentence.

"Siren, the amperage in that thing wouldn't be enough," Star said before Siren could get the rest of her idea out. We all started to head down the street too, but our slower acceleration gave Siren at a huge head start.

"Well, is there a way to make it hit harder?" Ricochet asked

"NO! Wait! If you somehow _did_ make the dogs overload, we might damage the hard drive beyond repair! We could be erasing any evidence that it was ever there," Star said.

"If it overloaded, the virus might be trapped Star, this could be our only chance!" Boulder argued. Star sounded ready to argue more, but Ricochet cut her off.

"Sky, with me," She took a hard left turn onto another empty street, her tires squealing from the effort.

"Will smashing these things to bits be a problem?" Ricochet asked. Sky also took a sharp turn, but the only thing that squealed was Blades.

"If you are careful, no," Star said. "But Ricochet, we-"

"We're either hitting them or sending them to the islands EMP zone. Which is it Star? Boulder?" She said in a harsh tone. Star sighed and said that the EMP zone might be the only way to do it without obliterating the _tiny_ hard drives in the Robo-dogs.

"If we surround them, we could push them into the EMP zone. But they might just jump over us," I said.

"Well, we can still try can't we?" Kade said.

"It's worth it if it works. Besides, that's what I'm here for," Blades said, trying to put a little bravery in his voice. "I can knock them back in."

"Let's go, time is wasting," I said applying a little bit more force to the gas.

"Siren, state your position," Chase said.

"Not in a position to comment at the moment. They're too fast!" Siren responded fearfully, menacing growls in the background.

"Why did they build these things with the ability to outrun a motorcycle?" Ricochet muttered. "She's on Baker Street. I'm right behind her."

"Sky? State your position," Chase said.

"Keeping an eye in the sky, like I always do," She said, sounding board. We barreled down the street and almost crashed into Siren and Ricochet. We all turned sharply and started to follow Ricochet. Siren drove all the way to the EMP zone and the dogs were still after her. It wasn't a surprise that the moment she stopped, they tried to attack her. She practically jumped into the EMP zone and looked ready to dodge the claws that would come her way.

The dogs must have been able to sense the electromagnetic pulses radiating out of the EMP zone and were smart enough to know that was not a place they wanted to go. They let out a mechanical growl. We all started to surround the dogs with our vehicles and in no time, the dogs looked at all of us...looking very _very_ ticked off.

"You've got nowhere to go," I said, though...it wasn't entirely true. They had an awaiting EMP zone behind them after all. They pounced, but Blades was able to knock them back with the bottom of his alt and they rolled into the EMP zone. Electricity surrounded their entire body and their scarlet optics started to flicker. They turned towards Siren, who was still in the EMP zone, looking at them in anticipation and fear. Before they could even react to her being so close, their body started to convulse and then went completely still.

We all got out of vehicles and tried to get a closer look at the dogs, careful not to take any tech in with us.

"They don't look so tough now!" Kade said kicking one of the dogs wide-open maw. There must have been some sort of mechanism he activated because the moment he hit it, the jaw closed on his foot and he started to hop around screaming "ow" every other second. Ricochet chuckled under her breath and the girls had to keep themselves from smiling.

"Heatwave? Chase? Help me load this up please?" Boulder said. Star gave him a look, but it was gone just as quick as it had come. There must have been something going on that I didn't know about, but I just wanted to finish this and go home. Although the cots weren't that comfortable, sleep was still something I needed. Even though it was only 9:00, I was drained. I didn't know how humans could do this for even _longer_. I regretted ever thinking that Dani was being overdramatic. Being organic was _hard_.

Once we got all of the dogs onto Star's alt mode's bed, we strapped them down with some stuff Graham had. Once we were all done, we all headed home and he moment my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep.

Ricochet's P.O.V *

The next morning, I practically hung off of Dani until she got me a cup of coffee. I...felt...terrible. I was sore, I was tired, I was hungry, and I...was just so _SORE!_ Siren didn't look much better, but Sky and Star looked just fine. I tried to look at Siren's bruise from yesterday, but she literally shrugged me off of her and asked me to get her another cup of coffee.

I started to wonder if we should be a little bit more serious about the whole job thing. We were probably costing a _fortune_ to take care of...and I kinda felt bad. But before I could think about it anymore though, Sky came running in saying Star and Boulder had found something.

* * *

 **Another chapter, another reminder that this will be heavily edited. And since I haven't even started the next story (which is not going to be Payback to anyone who has read this story before), there is going to be some re-reading recommended after and before the series ends (I have some pretty big ambitions for this story-line). If you don't feel like it, I will put a summary of what I changed (if it is important) in all of the chapters so you don't have to dig for important info.**

 **I may be digging my grave by giving false promises, but only time will tell. I have the rest of my life to write this. As for you guys, keep on keeping on. This journey will be here whenever you need it. Have a great day/night. Peace.**


	14. The Results

**The results are in! Luke...I AM YOUR FATHER!**

* * *

Chapter 14: The Results

I came downstairs, two coffee's in my hand, and, sure enough, the robotic dogs were completely disassembled and had multiple wires and pieces sticking out of numerous parts. Boulder and Star had dark bags under their eyes and they looked like they were going to claps any second...but they also were bouncing around like little children. They definitely had found something.

Boulder was looking at his dual monitor system, trying to find any similarities between this case and the two other cases while Star was fishing around for a tool.

"Hey Boulder, have you seen the wrench anywhere?" She asked. Since I was like a wrench magnet (something only Ratchet would understand), I put the coffees down, quickly found it and held it out to Star. At first, she flinched, but then she gave me a smile and started chuckling to herself.

"This is the first time you've had a wrench and not thrown it at something."

I just nodded tiredly. I grabbed one of the cups I had set down and gave one to Star and the other one Boulder. Both took a sip out of their cups and stopped looking so much like zombies and more like themselves. Well...their human selves.

"Alright, you dragged us all down here so this better be good," Dani said cradling a cup of the addicting caffeine filled drink. The only one that looked like they had a good night's sleep was Cody.

"Alright. First, I want to start off by saying-"

"Star," Boulder quickly interrupted. She looked at him annoyed first, but then that annoyment turned to shock and almost worry. She dashed over to his side, almost spilling her cup all over the setup...but she didn't seem to notice, or maybe even care. She looked like she strained her eyes to find anything out of place or out of the ordinary.

"That's new," She muttered to herself

"What's new?" Chief said before he yawned again."Long story short, this is a virus, not a hacker," She said putting one finger in the air, still looking at the monitor. How she could have figured out that much in only a few hours was almost magical. Luckily for us, that wasn't all that they found though.

"This virus is the exact same one from the other two...missions," She put another finger up, still looking at the monitor and making a few faces as she read some of the codes.

"And...this one came with...something special," She said putting her hand down. She grabbed her coffee and took a few sips before holding it to absorb its warmth. She still didn't take her eyes off of those computers.

"Wait," She spat. Boulder's screens stopped scrolling down. She pointed to the screen. Both of them looked confused at what they were looking at. "You see that."

We might as well have been invisible when she was working. Sky looked like she was falling asleep despite the fact she was standing. I had to nudge her to stay awake. I looked at the clock and was disappointed to find out it was only 5:01.

"Yeah, what about it?" He asked, snapping my attention back to the little thing we had going on.

"Open it," She ordered. He complied. Slowly everyone started to surround the two engineers and looked to see what was so interesting. To me, all the lines of code and programming looked like a bunch of random words and letters, but one string caught my attention.

initiate:

"'Party time protocol?" I asked. Everyone looked at me (save for Star and Boulder) and started to search for it. After everyone did, everyone started to scratch their heads and wondered what this meant.

"That could be where they are striking next," Sky suggested. A few of us nodded our heads in agreement, but before anyone could say anything otherwise, the monitor started to beep and flash a red warning. We all looked at the screen in confusion...and then in worry. It looked just like the screen that flashed before the Bio-transmographer exploded.

"What does-" Kade started to ask.

"Everyone get back!" Star, Boulder, and Graham said, pushing everyone away from the computer. The computers started to shake violently, smoke pouring out of them as they did so, and hiss with an overabundance of electricity. Before we could even ask what happened, the computers stopped shaking and started on fire. Star and Boulder looked devastated, but this was the one time I would be the optimistic person in the group. At least we had all the information we needed.

Heatwave grabbed the fire extinguisher and put the fire out while Boulder explained that there was a self destruct mechanism built in to the dog's programming so that there was no way to make them weaponized. Opening this file, he explained, must have triggered it.

Something felt wrong about that explanation, but I didn't feel like I had to say anything.

"But now we have a clue where it is going...right?" Blades asked, now wide awake.

"A 'party' of some sort, maybe," Siren said. She turned to where Cody and Chief were standing. "Can you think of any?"

All the Burnses looked at each other and I could see the collective light bulb go off above their heads.

"The Griffin Rock Foundation Ball?" Dani asked excitedly as she turned to her father and brothers. Her brothers groaned and she gave them a look. We all looked at her confused so she continued. "To celebrate the 370th anniversary of the foundation of Griffin Rock, we decided we would have a ball this year!"

"Like a basketball?!" Sky asked, bouncing on her toes, her eyes wide.

"A ball is a formal dance. That is why the whole town has dance attire on sale and people have been talking about it. In some cases, non stop." Chase explained. He received a glare from Dani, but he just gave a dumb smile. This time I had to agree with Sky. Basketball sounded a ton more fun than dancing.

"Well, not 'non-stop'. But...YES!" Dani squealed as she turned around again. "And we're going to have to get you girls dresses and, well I think a little makeup wouldn't hurt. OH OH...Sky, you would look great in the dress I got-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa...hold on. Were not going to the ball," Heatwave said. Dani looked at him in shock and then crossed her arms before he could explain himself.

"Well...why not?" She asked snottily.

"What if this thing isn't attacking the party, but everywhere else while the party is going on?" Heatwave explained. "The only thing that could stop it would be at that party."

"What if we split up?" Cody suggested. Heatwave didn't look anymore convinced. He looked at me.

"Star, is there any way to recover anything and look a little closer? I mean, there must be some way...right?" Kade asked. Star looked over at the melting plastic on the computers and shook her head.

"Not unless if we had another computer," She said. Boulder nodded in agreement.

Prioritize

Again, that little voice in my head, my sister's voice, played in my head. I wondered what there was to prioritize, but got a little mad when I couldn't think of anything.

Prioritize

I took a deep breath and tried to think. If everyone was going to be at the party...that meant that the rest of the island was open. But people were more important than property, I thought. We need to prioritize their health and safety over some replaceable stuff.

"Dani," I said, recapturing her attention. "Everyone is going to be at the party right?"

"Yeah...why?""Everyone?" I asked, just to make sure she actually meant every single person living on Griffin Rock.

"Everyone on the island is on the guest list, so yeah," Dani said. Heatwave crossed his arms and looked at me...patiently. He knew I had something. Instead of fighting me on this, he was letting me take the wheel for a little bit. I definitely liked that about him. He wasn't a tyrant that was set in his ways...he was an actual good leader that let everyone have a seat at the table.

"Then the people should come first. If everyone on the island is going, we should be there in case there is any trouble. Virus or not. Besides, if people are robbed, stuff can be replaced," I explained. Heatwave smiled and nodded.

"I guess I take back what I said then." Everyone's and I mean everyone's eyebrows raised. Even Cody's. Kade also had an ugly grin plastered on his face and it wasn't until that exact moment I realized he had a very punchable face.

"YES! Ok, so Siren, I think I have the perfect dress for you!" Dani said looking up and down at Siren's body. Then she shook her head and said that her black hair wouldn't really go with...something. I thought about that dress back at that little shop and wondered if that dress was too much...what had the humans called it? Money.

Before I could ask if we could go get that one, she moved onto Sky and started talking about how both of them had similar figures and they might have been able to share clothes...and, of course, any amount of dresses Dani had. Since Dani didn't have enough dresses to go around to all of us girls, she said she would take us shopping. And since she was so hyped about the party now, she made us get ready to go that minute. She told the boys that they would have to go with Kade to get some nice clothes, and, before he could protest, Dani was dragging us into town.

We went to a few dress shops that had a TON of different dresses, but all of them either looked like they would just be too much or they were just too much money. I asked Dani if we could go down to that little shop and she reluctantly took us down there again. I immediately tried on the dress that I had seen what felt like ages ago and it fit almost perfectly.

The one sleeve didn't irritate me as much as I thought it would, and I got to see how the dress looked all spread out. The top portion was more or less ruffled up and had one small gold piece of round metal that met at the end of each row. There was also a small sliver of the top that didn't have any fabric, so an almost scratch like amount of skin showed. I had to say, it was more comfortable than it looked.

There was this little plastic...thing that kept poking me, but Dani said that was just there so it wasn't stolen without the owner knowing. I was about to comment about how it didn't seem that effective when the owner came around and asked if we needed anything.

After I changed back, Star was next to find her dress. Sky found a really pretty green, sleeveless dress that had a similar ruffle look at the top to mine. Star really liked this one and it was relatively cheap, so next up was Siren. We told Sky to go look for one for her so she had a little more time to chose. We made that mistake when we went and got new paint jobs. That was the longest day of my life.

Siren chose a relatively cheap blue dress that had straps that fell off of the shoulders and...well not much else that stood out. Just like Star's dress, it was made out of a slippery, glossy, material. I didn't know much about human fashion, but I knew that heads would be turning. Dani was smiling all throughout the day and made me worried a few times when she squealed whenever we would come out with our dresses on.

Sky surprised us all by only bringing over one dress. It was orange (Sky's favorite color) and was nothing like the rest of ours. It had a different material, it had a design on the top, and it had two straps. The one similarity, it fits both her body and her obnoxious personality.

Dani looked like she was having the time of her life. She kept talking about how she never had any girly girls that would let her do this to them and she wouldn't shut up about how excited she was. None of us wanted to dampen her spirits, so we didn't mention how this was a mission more than it was a party, so we all just tuned her out after a while. She didn't seem to notice.

When we got home, there was a person I had never seen before waiting for Dani. He was wearing what looked like a pilot uniform and looked like he had something behind his back. She turned bright red and pretty much leaped out of Siren's alt, coming to us if she saw us watching she would kill us.

"What do you think that was all about?" Siren asked as she closed the garage doors so they had some privacy.

"I'm not sure," Star said. Sky started to explain what was going on, but my mind wasn't in the conversation. We all went down to the bunker and hid our dresses in a place Dani had cleaned up just for the occasion.

My mind wandered back to the fire, the store, and the dogs. No other technology was attacked. No other calls were made. It didn't make much sense. The dog's bodies were still on the table, though the metal was blackened a little by the fire. I looked for the bot that was in the house fire and found him in a corner of the garage, put together and not appearing online. Although I knew it wasn't turning on anytime soon, I still felt like I was still being watched by those ruby red optics.

"Ricochet," Star said. I gave one last look before I turned my attention to my girls again.

"What?" I asked. I turned around and was greeted by the boys walking in. Kade had a short, blond woman hooked on of his arms and a bunch of black bags on the other. The other boys looked like they had been through the pits and back.

"What happened?" I asked with a slight laugh.

"You don't want to know," Chase said. The girls laughed a little bit and the boys just glared at Kade while he talked about the dance the next day with the blond girl. I didn't know what Kade could have done to make the boys feel that uncomfortable, but I wasn't gonna ask.

I was also wondering what mental condition the new girl could have had to not be repulsed by Kade...and on the contrary, actually be attracted to him.

Then, again, the dance became the topic of discussion.

Little did anyone know, the dance was definitely going to be something unforgettable...but all for all the wrong reasons.

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed. Can you believe it has been a full year since I posted this? I can't. I owe all the happiness I have gotten out of this series to you guys** **. I wish you all a pleasant day/night. PEACE! ;)**


	15. Silent Scream In The Deafening Silence

**I think that this is the chapter that I am most proud of. Thank you for your patience. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter Fifteen: Silent Scream in the Deafening Silence

I couldn't sleep.

I could not for the life of me find rest. I tried everything. I got into a comfortable position, I got myself wrapped up in all of the blankets I could find, and I closed my eyes and only focused on my breathing. No sleep. It was 2:00 when I finally gave up and grabbed my music and headed out for a walk. I was just going to the cliffside and back...but something stopped me in my tracks.

I felt like I was being watched.

I turned around to my teammates, seeing if any of them were awake, but all of them were dead asleep. I was a little confused, but I just shrugged off my worries, passing them off as me being stressed and sleep-deprived. _Which wouldn't be the case, if my fragen brain would let me sleep!_

So, I turned on Iridescent by Linkin Park and listened to the soft, yet powerful vocals. I put on my shoes and walked through the massive tunnel. When I got to the clearing I took my earbuds out. I didn't know why, but I did it anyway. I realized almost all of the lights were turned off, save for the occasional street lamp or midnight motorist headlights. It was also very quiet, like...abnormal amounts of quiet. No crickets, no owls, no deer or anything making any noise. The only sound I could hear was the ringing of silence.

I sat down, letting my mind almost be numbed by the alien lack of noise. Then, out of nowhere, I heard a twig snap to my right. My head snapped towards the sound and saw a dark figure. I was frozen in place. It was relatively small in size, but I had no idea what I was supposed to do. It wasn't until it stepped out into a brighter patch of moonlight that I realized it was only a bunny.

The moment it saw me, it disappeared so fast, it looked like it just popped out of existence. _Since when are rabits nocturnal?_

Why am I so jumpy all of a sudden? I wondered as I returned to my thoughts.

"Ricochet…" I heard a small, unfamiliar voice whisper.

"Ricochet…" This time, it was a little louder.

"Who is it?" I asked in a weird voice, one that definitely wasn't mine. The voice only repeated itself. Never a change in the way the voice said my name. A monotone chant that was starting to get on my nerves.

" _Who's there?_ " I tried to say, but a lump the size of my fist formed in my throat before I could even start. I was starting to get really freaked out now. Whatever joke this was...it wasn't funny. I would give Sky props on making this a good one, but I was going to have a few words that most definitely would have made T ashamed.

" _This isn't funny Sky!_ " I tried to say. The bodiless voice stopped. I got to my feet and tried to take a few steps towards the cave, but the gravel just slid under my shoes. I was stuck in place. I tried to speed up, but there was no traction whatsoever. I tried, again, to speed up, but I might as well have been running against a rolling assembly line.

 _Something grabbed my shoulders and spun me around so fast, my brain was still spinning when my body stopped. Once my brain caught up with my eyes, I saw the cliffside view was now completely dark. No street lamps on, no lawn lights, no headlights of any cars…it was total darkness._

 _I tried to turn around again and face whoever/whatever was doing this to me, but I was stuck. I couldn't even move my body much less fight with it. My heart was pounding against my chest so hard I thought I would have heard it...but I couldn't. I couldn't hear anything in this noiseless void._

 _"Ricochet…"_

 _Suddenly, I saw a small flame in the distance, down by the docks we arrived on._

 _As the seconds passed, the fire grew._

 _Slowly._

 _Agonizingly slow._

 _Ricochet_

 _The voice was starting to take shape. It didn't sound so disconnected and omniscient. It started to sound like a child's voice. A little boy's voice._

 _I tried to speak again, but I might as well have been trying to talk in space. The voice was the only sound._

 _My eyes wouldn't move off of the fire, but for a different reason. It was headed right for people._

 _Blissfully unaware and innocent people, up for their night shift, up to check on their loved ones. Up for no reason other than they could be._

 _I tried to scream at them to move, but it was no use. They were swallowed up and turned to ash._

 _The fire started to spread faster._

 _"Ricochet…" the voice called again, sounding more and more familiar each time it chanted._

 _The fire, which was moving at a snail's pace at first, was now moving faster than I could run, swallowing people up and spitting out ashes. The fire consumed the docks, then half the town, then the lab, and it just kept spreading._

 _"Ricochet…"_

 _"What do you want from me?!" I tried to scream. The fire finaly consumed the fire house...and everyone in it. A blanket of orange flame covered the now lifeless island._

 _"You promised to protect us…"_

 _I quit struggling. I felt my eyes widen._

 _I knew that voice._

 _"You promised…"_

Cody.

 _The force turned me around slowly to a devastated Cody. Tears streamed down his red face as he watched his island turn to ashes. The glow from the flames was reflected in his innocent eyes._

 _"You promised…"_

 _I tried to reach out to him, tell him I didn't do it, but the rib crushing force came back. I tried to run, but I stayed in place. I tried to scream, but I couldn't speak. I tried to move, but I couldn't break free from the darkness's grasp._

 _The rocks under me started to grow and start to hollow out, forming human skulls. I fought back against the darkness one last time with all the strength I could muster._

 _"You promised..."_

 _" **CODY!** " my voice finally broke free from its cage, but now it was useless. Pointless._

 _The skulls reached my knees and started to chant my name with the disembodied voice as before, only this time, they were 1,000 times louder. And as the skulls grew in numbers, so did the volume._

 _"RICOCHET! RICOCHET!"_

 _They were at my waist and there were only more and more piling on. Skulls of the people I couldn't...no...I didn't save._

 _I finally closed my eyes, accepting my end as I listened to the tortured souls that once lived on this island._

 _"Ricochet...Ricochet..."_

 _No matter who I want to save, no matter how much I wanted to save them…_

 _I couldn't_

* * *

I was already out of my cot when I woke up. I was on the cold ground gasping for any air that came my way and grasping my burning throat. I was both hot and cold at the same time, my head was spinning, and I was covered in sweat. I raked my hands through my hair, trying to comfort my shaking form. My gut decided to do somersaults and my lungs decided they were going to start on fire. The immense terror, panic, and heartbreak I felt in my dream carried over into the real world. I felt unrealistically nauseous.

Sky, who must have been woken up by all the noise I was making, came over and put her hand on my back, trying to shake me out of my...less than pleasant situation. Her voice sounded distant and muffled like she was talking through thick metal walls.

"-chet….Ricochet!" She hissed, her voice becoming more clear. I tried to look at her, but my stiff neck kept me from doing anything. It wasn't until my bout of nausea went away I realized I was suffocatingly sore. I trembled and shook as the chant from my dream came back and whispered into my soul.

"Ricochet. Are you ok?"

My lungs drank up all of the fresh air that was available and my muscles relaxed to her touch. Even if it was _Kade_ there, I would have felt better knowing there was something...no... _someone_ was here with me.

Someone alive.

The images from my dream played again in my head and I started to gag.

This was one of the most disgusting feelings I have ever felt. Ever. But soon after the disgusting feeling was gone, my terror and panic faded a little, my lungs started to feel normal again, and I let my muscles relax even more.

" _Yeah…_ " I cleared my bile covered throat, realizing it was very hoarse. "I'm fine now."

"Maybe we should get-"

"No, I'm fine," I insisted.

"I'm getting-" I grabbed her wrist. She looked a little reluctant to back down, but she did. I let go of her. Her other hand slid off of my back and she looked at me with worry in her eyes. My shirt was soaked in cold sweat but my body felt like it was on fire. I questioned if these nightmares could even be classified as such anymore.

"Trailfire?" Sky whispered carefully.

"Not this time." My heartfelt like a rock in my chest when I saw the little human child from my dream look at me with those tear-stained eyes. That exact boy was just up a few flights of stairs and down a hallway. I shivered again, not wanting to see that devastated face again.

Trailfire was my nightmare on Cybertron, Cody was mine on Earth.

 _How long until_ he _is taken from you._

"Well...is there anything I can do to help?" I could barely hear her now she was so quiet. Since she was the youngest of us all, she always looked up to me to be the strong one of the group...now I was failing at that also. My eyes started to water, but I didn't know if it was from my amplified emotions or my aching muscles.

"Just…help me up," I ordered. She quickly grabbed my arm and wrapped it around her shoulders, then hoisted me up. Once my feet were under me (and I was able to get my balance) she started to back up, giving me my space.

"Do you think you're going to make it through the day?"

"I think so." My eyelids started to feel heavy and my vision began to blur more. "What time is it?"

"2:30," she said before she yawned. I was wondering why she was up so early, but I was so tired...I didn't think I could formulate the entire question without fainting.

"I think you need to lay down."

And that was the last thing I remember hearing before I drifted into a much needed and appreciated dreamless slumber.

* * *

 **I have so many ideas with what I will do with this...but all I can say is you are all in for a treat. A real sweet treat. If you all are willing to wait and continue to read. Any way...I hope you all have a good day/night. May the force be with you.**


	16. The Hunt

**Well...time moved quickly. A month since I last posted last? Wow. Hope this makes up for it. Cheers!**

* * *

Chapter Sixteen: The Hunt

Waking up was kind of a mistake.

Three rescues, five minutes in between each other. One broken arm, three broken ribs, three sprained ankles, and four idiots playing with fireworks without reading the instructions. The last one made me realize just how nasty some wounds could get...yuck.

On top of that, Sky was hovering over me the entire time and getting in the way, Kade was being even more hot-headed than usual, and if Dani had mentioned the dance one more time, I would have stitched her mouth shut.

So...overall, I was just excited to get this over and done with.

It was about 3:00 when Dani started to get us ready, helping us with our clothes, hair, and this weird stuff called "make-up". When we were all done, I felt more uncomfortable than I had ever been in my life. I felt exposed, dirty from having goo on my face, and I felt defenseless without any weapons or tools I could bring with me.

We got done getting ready at about 4:30. I pointed out the dance didn't start until 6:00, and Dani gave me a half jibberish response about how we were going early. I figured I would just leave it at that and find out why when we got there.

When we were finally allowed to meet up with the others ("because it needs to be a surprise!"), we discussed our plan.

"Chase, Siren, Boulder, and Star will be on the outskirts of the plaza, making sure nothing and no one gets in or out. Sky, Blades, Chief, and Cody will be checking people in and making sure that everyone gets here. Kade and Dani are going to sweep the surrounding buildings and make sure they locked down and Graham will install the entrances with security cameras and the perimeter with an EMP generator. That way if anything goes down, we have an easy out. And Ricochet and I are going to check and keep surveillance on the actual plaza. When all of your tasks are done, you can join the party, but stay on alert." Heatwave ordered before we all pinned our comms on, got into our alts, and drove to the plaza.

Another thing that made me want this party to wrap up quick? The summer hot day had cooled down significantly as the sun made its way toward the horizon. I was shivering when I got out of my alt...and Dani had refused to let us "cover up her work".

I got that she was excited, but I thought that was taking it a little too far.

Everyone immediately set to work when we got there. I memorized every person already there, their face, their name, what they were wearing...etc.

I memorized the area, making sure I could spot if something was out of place or wrong. The plaza was smack dab in the middle of the park. Lanterns hung from trees, streamers wrapped around bushes, and real roses were wrapped around decorative pillars. The dance floor was a wooden platform that looked like it was sturdy enough for maybe a few hundred pounds, but not the tons that were coming. And attached to that, there was a little stand cut out for the person working the music and lights.

Overall, it was a decent setup...for something that only took an hour or two to set up.

I also memorized all of the worrisome tech there...which only consisted of the Robo-waiters.

There were 18 of them, each spotless white with black wheels for peds. They had two arms with treys attached to them, some carrying glasses of...something...and others carrying very odd-looking food items.

They kind of reminded me of my station cleaner, Sqweeks. He was a little thing, about the size of a human, but that made him the best bot to take shrapnel out of sedated patients. And since he was a dedicated little fellow, he would help by making sure all of my tools were sterile and fixed before I needed to use them again.

I hoped that these...things...would stay out of trouble, unlike Sqweeks. He would always steal Ratchet's wrenches whenever he was bored. He didn't make it long as our...my...assistant doing that.

The mayor must have seen me smiling at the memory as he sauntered over because he made it his mission to talk to me...about anything and everything. The only way I knew was the mayor was because of the fake hair he was obviously wearing. Kade had told me there was only one person that did.

Not long after I was trapped, guests started to arrive in droves. Some had come in by limousine, some had walked here, and some had apparently walked out of the walls. I tried to talk my way out of the conversation, but the mayor wouldn't let me go.

I was just about to shove his 12-inch "kebabs" down his throat when Heatwave stepped in and asked me if I could help him find something. He looked like he was about to just burst out laughing at the situation I was in, but somehow he held it together. I quickly excused myself from the mayor and grabbed Heatwave's arm.

"And what could I possibly help you with?" I asked sarcastically.

"I think I lost my balance from laughing so hard. Can you help me find it?" He finally couldn't help but laugh. I blushed and slapped his chest. He continued to laugh. Once he finally got it all out (but still preceded to smile like a lunatic), we made our way over to the "bar" where the music wasn't as loud and where people were talking about the party and the latest gossip. We both got water and sat down, our eyes never moving off of the plaza.

I saw Sky and Blades talking with a bunch of people, laughing at jokes and looking like they were having a good time. Star and Boulder looked like they were the fanciest security guards, looking for any signs of trouble and not looking like they were having any luck...or fun. Siren, Chase, and Chief all looked pleased with themselves and looked like they were in the middle of a good conversation.

But as the people started to fill the dance floor, I could see less and less. I felt blind.

"This is going to work right?" I asked out of the blue. "Do you think we have it wrong? What if this was just a distraction?"

"I think you said it best when you said 'property can be replaced'. We both know people can't be."

Now I could only see strangers. All of them blissfully unaware of what was going to happen to them if this plan didn't work. _Blissfully unaware and innocent people._

"We should have had the team split up. Half be on patrol and the other half making sure everything was alright here."

He didn't say anything. A slight breeze swept over the plaza and I shivered. I crossed my arms and wished the party would just end.

"You know, you look very nice," He said, changing the subject.

"I've never been this uncomfortable before." I shifted in my seat, trying to see in and around the crowd.

He stood up suddenly and held out his hand.

"Let's go dance." I looked at him with confusion.

"No. I'm good." I didn't feel like making an even bigger fool of myself. Before I could turn around and ask for a warm drink, he grabbed my hand and swept me into his arms and onto the dance floor.

"Heatwave!"

He just looked at me with a smirk, like he knew something I didn't.

"The only way we can see around the crowd is if we become a part of it." He whispered into my ear, his warm breath against my cool skin made me shiver again. He laced his fingers with mine and wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him. I was blushing like crazy now, and I suddenly didn't feel cold anymore. Whether it was because of his body temperature or because of my embarrassment, I would never know.

I stayed put though, not wanting to cause a scene...and because I realized he was right.

"Fine...but if you do that again, I'll-"

"Lose in another fight with me?" He cut in. I shook my head and tried to stop myself from smiling.

"I won't be afraid to throw something at you." He chuckled. "I'm serious! You can ask Sky how good I am at it. I've had a lot of practice."

"I don't doubt it." He said seriously.

We scanned everything, turning in a circle to make sure that we didn't miss anything and checking each other's observations.

Another slow song played, and some people got off of the dance floor, clearly spent. After a few people left, I could see the robot waiters through the gap they made.

The waiters were lining up to refill their treys on the other side of the plaza, where some food trucks were parked. A robotic arm came out of a van and placed steaming hot food onto the waiter's tray. Then, the arm retracted back and the waiter rolled away with a little squeal of the tires.

They didn't look out of the ordinary, but there was something...off about them to me.

Call me crazy, but they just looked... _too_ robotic. Like they didn't have any sort of fluid motion. They moved their treys to the side then down instead of moving it diagonally, when they moved they started and stopped abruptly instead of accelerating and decelerating, and they spoke in monotone voices instead of sounding like someone was reading a script. _Monotone voices._

"On your 6," I whispered. He suddenly let go of my waist and made me twirl. Then he pulled me back into his arms and continued to dance. He had turned us so he could see what I was talking about.

"What about them?" He stopped spinning us and just swayed. "You're talking about the servers right?"

"Yeah. They just seem so...stiff."

"That's normal for human technology."

"So humans don't know how to program robots to move their servos diagonally...or to monitor their speed?"

After a few more minutes with my back turned to them, he started to spin us again.

"You're right...they do look...off."

Suddenly, both of our comms lit up. It was Star.

"Hey guys, we have a visual on the bug. I repeat, we have a visual."

Heatwave immediately let go and we both dashed to where Star and Boulder were stationed. We startled a few people with our urgency to get there, but for now, we didn't spook anyone. _Or anything._

We didn't even need to ask where they were talking about. It so obvious I was embarrassed I hadn't seen it before.

The stainless white robot looked like it had been in a fight with a can of red paint, the blue optics were flickering on and off, and the wheels were spinning and slipping on the drinks it spilled.

"You think it's infected or just malfunctioning from the beverages?" Siren asked.

Just when she said it, the robot stopped seizing. It froze as if someone had just its pause button. Its optics flashed.

On.

Off.

On.

Off.

Blue.

Black.

Blue.

Black.

 _Red._

Last night's dream played in my head. The roaring fire that incinerated buildings, swallowed people whole, and spit out only ashes. The suffocating hold of the darkness. The devastated face of a child...seeing his world crumble at his feet.

 _"You promised Ricochet…"_

 _I promised._

* * *

 **Aaaaannnnd another one bites the dust! OW! I loved writing this and I hoped you loved reading this! And even if you didn't, have a great day/night. Peace be upon you, lovely mortal.**


	17. The Chase

**I LIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVEEEEE! Here's ANOTHER ONE. News at the bottom (as usual). ENJOY!**

* * *

Chapter Seventeen: The Chase

* Heatwave's P.O.V *

We had our target one minute and we lost it the next. It wasn't technically anyone's fault, but I knew no matter what, people were going to want to point fingers. And they were all going to want to point their fingers at Ricochet.

It had been my mission to watch over her. The mission was given to me by a frantic Sky at 2:35 in the morning. And although I was annoyed by her insistence, I still understood (and then saw) why. The constant overreactions during our missions earlier today, the look of absolute exhaustion, and worried (and almost scared) looks at Cody all made me see what had Sky so worried. I knew she wasn't going to be 100% herself today...and I knew that could be dangerous.

Once the dance had started, I thought I was doing a good job. I had gotten her to calm down after Mayor Lusky wouldn't stop talking to her about his new car, I had gotten her to stop worrying so much about the worst-case scenario, and I had gotten her to smile...and even joke a little bit.

But that all changed when we found the bug.

On.

Off.

On.

Off.

Blue.

Black.

Blue.

Black.

 _Red._

The bot bolted towards the other server bots on the other side of the plaza. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on who you ask) Ricochet was already in its way.

The robots were not that heavy since they were almost hollow, but they still had enough weight that running into them head-on was not a smart idea. And since Ricochet _was_ smart, she grabbed the robot from the side, using both its arms and its momentum against him and throwing it back. The sound of shattering glass, splintering wood, and groaning metal, erupted from the wreckage the robot left.

It was definitely damaged, but not completely offline.

There was only one problem with her little plan...it got attention. And a lot of it.

"Scrap," Siren said before the entire crowd went silent and the music stopped. Questions like 'Why does it have red eyes?', 'who are they?', and 'why is that thing in the punch?' rippled through the tension-filled quiet. Chief, who had been on the other side of the plaza checking on the other Burns, rushed from the crowd and explained that we were on his team and that there was nothing to worry about.

The other robots were all over on the other side of the plaza, still getting and dishing out food and drinks. Or...at least they were before they suddenly stopped. Just dead in their tracks. The tension in the air continued to rise.

 _Everyone_ was looking at their flickering optics.

On.

Off.

On.

Off.

Blue.

Black.

Blue.

Black.

 _Red._

Before people could even react, the bots started to buzz around the place, bumping into people left and right, tripping people, pushing people into very dangerous places and positions, and grabbing people and throwing people onto the floor.

People were screaming, some people were yelling obscenities, and others were crying out as the robots continued to assault them. A flood of people dashed for the exit, some people running full speed ahead without any regard to who or what they hit and some people being picked up and carried along without meaning to be.

I knew there were going to be people more hurt because of the panic than the actual robots. It was a stampede. It was absolute chaos.

A minute later, the dancefloor was cleared.

"Graham, activate the EMP fence," Chief commanded. And he did. Three bots that were chasing the crowd immediately started to seize, electricity spewing out everywhere.

The others stopped abruptly. If it was possible for "friendly" robots to looked ticked, they did. The robots that still had victims continued their assault.

The one closest to me was holding a little girl by the arm and repeatedly making her hit herself. Then, after two or three times would grab her by the hair and pull her to the ground. Then it would hit her head against the floor.

I ran to its side and waited for it to let go of her before I began _my_ assault.

Just before it grabbed her to do it again, I ran and crashed into it, pushing it a few yards away. Bright pain flew throughout my shoulder and arm. I didn't know much about bodies or medicine, but I knew that repeated blows to the head were much more serious than repeated blows to the shoulder, so I kept pushing it back.

It tried to go back to the little girl, but I stayed in its way. It was almost like it didn't know I was there.

Then, when I was far enough from the girl, I started to just hit the thing. The body was only made out of thin material, definitely not metal, so it was easy to crack and break.

Finally, I had exposed enough wiring and I just started to grasp at it, ripping whatever I could. After about five swipes at it, I finally got an important wire, and it just stopped and shut down. _Nighty night._

I turned around and found the girl had tried to flee, but she hadn't gotten far. I ran to her side and saw that she had a nasty gash on her head. Her entire face and dress were covered in blood, snot, and tears. She looked like she was just a teen.

"Come on, lets get you out of here." I tried to pick her up, but (between choked sobs) she told me she could run. I helped her onto her feet and she immediately collapsed onto me, looking dizzy. When she had gotten her bearings, we both sprinted to the nearest exit, but it wasn't long until we heard the whining of a motor getting louder and louder by the second.

I grabbed her and carried her, not thinking she would be fast enough. The perimeter was _just_ out of reach, but I knew we weren't going to make it.

"I'm sorry about this," I said before I stopped, and with all my might, threw her out of the plaza. She rolled into the clear just before the bot rammed into my back. I spun through the air and hit my head on the ground. I was on the grass, but spots still taunted my vision.

Thankfully, I was heavy enough that the ricochet of the bot was enough to send him through the perimeter as well. He sizzled and seized just like the first three did.

I mentally scolded myself for not counting how many there were, but knowing that at least five were down was enough for me. I pulled myself up and an immediate veil of exhaustion and pain hit me.

Then another sprinting waiter knocked the wind out of me.

I went down again. The waiter started to kick the scrap out of me, ramming into my ribs, pulling me up, slamming me down...the spots in my vision started to get bigger. The little girl screamed.

Then it all stopped and two sets of servos caught me and dragged me back.

I felt a tingling pain on the base of my neck and I went out like a light.

* Ricochet's P.O.V *

When the crowd erupted, I immediately tackled the closest bot to me and tried to analyze it for a weak spot. After a few minutes of struggling to keep it pinned, I found one right were the tailbone would be on a human. It was an exposed wire that clipped its wings...or rather, its wheels.

I don't know how a wrench ended up in my hand (or where it came from), but I used anyway to sever the line.

When the robot stopped moving, I stood there momentarily, assessing the situation...and the battlefield. The server I had thrown into the punch was rolling after Heatwave, who had a teenager running at his side. Sky was beating one server up with its own trey, smiling like an idiot as she did. Star and Siren had done the exact thing I did and were attacking its back with a hedge trimmer and a pizza cutter. Kade, Chief, Cody, Frankie, Doc Green, Dani, and Graham were all herding people out of the plaza. And Boulder, Blades, and Chase were all trying to beat up a group of servers.

There were only five or six civilians left to go, and the majority of the servers were dead or dying.

The last robot came bolting towards me and I dodged it and struck its back with all of my might. I aimed a little to low though, so all I did was make noise. It spun around and struck me in the face. I went down, but before I could get up to defend myself or strike it again, Sky and Blades hit it and made it topple over and Star made it stop squirming.

"Another wrench huh?" Star chuckled and helped me up. We didn't look too bad all things considered. I took a quick glance at the plaza and it was still. There were heaps of trash everywhere, the robot's bodies littered the place, and food and drinks were spilled everywhere the eye could see.

I looked back at my team and saw the Burnses walking up to us. They all had this sad look in their eyes...especially Dani.

"Where's Heatwave?" Kade asked, looking around. Boulder and Chase came running up from behind him, but Heatwave wasn't with them. Kade started to call out to him, making jokes at both of our expenses.

"Come on dude! You ditching your girl on the first date? Not cool. Where are you...you big red oaf?!"

"I swear I just saw him right over-" I pointed at the spot I saw him at last. He wasn't there, but the girl he was with was. Blood covered her face, her eye looked like it was swelling shut, and it looked like she fractured her nose.

I ran over to her and asked her where the man she was with was. She just looked at me confused and dazed. I looked a little bit further at her injuries and saw they were consistent with multiple strikes to the head. Blunt force trauma. _Concussion._ I told Dani to get ready to fly her to the hospital and help them set up a triage system. Worst injuries dealt with first.

I slowed down my speech and calmly and quietly described Heatwave to her, hoping that would help. She started to sob.

"Stand in the way of the light, she-" I was trying to explain to my team how sensitive she was to stimuli, but she cut me off.

"They took him! They took him!" She sobbed.

The young girl's face was replaced momentarily with the face of the sobbing mom. Pain, sorrow, and anger all rolled up into one indescribable emotion and expression. I knew that this must have been overwhelming for her and her memory might have been faulty, but that sinking feeling in my gut told me I needed to get to him. _Quick._

I kept my voice quiet and calm as I said "Where?"

And when she pointed outside of the perimeter, it felt my heart sink into my feet.

I looked back at the plaza and counted how many bodies there were. _16._

The cries of my team got further and further as I ran. I had one mission now the island was out of danger: save the Hothead who was going to help me keep it that way.

* * *

 **Things are about to get dark. Hopefully not to the point you don't want to read though!**

 **I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has commented on this story (and all my previous attempts at this story). I really appreciate it.**

 ***In Thanos voice* "Comments aren't something one considers when writing a universe, but they do put a smile on my face."**

 **I also wanted to say _this_ story has like three chapters left, but _a whole nother_ story is coming up. I just wanted all of the people who have been here since the beginning know that it isn't going to be Payback. I hope to make it a Chase/Siren story (which will probably be a crime fiction/thriller story) and then after that a Star/Boulder story (most likely a survival story) and Sky/Blades story (still thinking). Then Payback.**

 **If you have any questions ask me. I think that is it...but if not, I guess I'll just have to add it in the next update. Have a great day/night! Don't get sick.**


	18. The Fight

**This is it! THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!**

 **Actually...probably not...but enjoy anyway! ;)**

* * *

Chapter Eighteen: The Fight

* Heatwave's P.O.V *

I had never been a fan of abandoned buildings.

They always smell the same, look the same, and sound the same. The smell of water and mold blended with the smell of millennia-old rocks, the darkness that surrounded me emitted that uncertainty of what was in it, and the constant sound of water dripping from a leaky pipe or a gutter that didn't completely dry from the last time it rained all filled my mind.

I recognized the place with the dim streams of moonlight slipping through the hole filled roof. It was the abandoned mine...on the other side of the island from the plaza.

Questions swarmed my mind along with nausea. Why was I was here? How could two people bring me this far without tipping anyone off? I tried to move my arms first. A wave of pain and soreness all came crashing down on me. My nausea intensified.

The shock from it almost made me go unconscious again. I tried to be as quiet as I could, but the popping coming from my chest every time I moved was not as quiet as I wanted it to be. The pain every single time those pops sounded off, I had to silence myself so I didn't scream.

The pain became the least of my worries when two waiters from the party rolled over. Their burning red optics were telling enough. They weren't here to help me.

"Cooperation s-s-set you free...sooner than not...will" It stuttered. Its hollow voice carried itself down the tunnels and back again. If I had any power over them...strength, size, a weapon...I would have laughed. You can barely talk, how are you going to make me cooperate.

But I knew I was powerless. I was weak from the fight and I didn't have any weapons. And I knew one false move would make me blackout...or break something even more.

Distant rain patted the ground outside and on the steel paneled roof. Puddles started to form where the roof failed to cover. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could make out the outline of old mining equipment and cautioning anyone that read them to stay out. The glow from the robot's optics was harsh against the blackness.

"What do you want from me?" I growled, coughing violently afterward. My chest ached, my arms screamed at me when I tried to move, my fingers were almost twice their usual size, and my legs felt like they had two hot metal rods shoved up into them. Colors splashed my vision once again. My hand felt wet.

My heart pounded harder and my mind started to race, the situation just becoming clear for the first time. 2 to 1. No...2 able to 1 injured. How did they get me here? What do they want? How did they knock me out?

What did they do to me?

The questions swirled in my brain.

Calm down I told myself. Your team will be here soon.

"I was expecting more resistance." The other bot said. Chills sprinted down and up my back and I shook. That voice wasn't that robot's normal voice. It was more sinister. More...alive.

A harsh light exploded from one of the servers servos. The back of my eyes felt like they were being beaten like drums. I could feel I was dancing on the line between consciousness and blacking out.

The robot held something out in his other hand. I panicked and went cold at first, thinking it was a gun. But then I looked closer. It was a white instrument with a glass vial attached to it. A needle stuck out.

A million disgusting scenarios flashed through my brain. My eyes widened in terror and tried backing away. It advanced forward and tried to grab my arm. I pushed myself a few feet back. One more move and I was stepping over the line.

I hated feeling so weak and helpless.

The robot stopped. I heard the same thing it did. Footsteps...getting close fast.

* Ricochet's P.O.V *

 _This is right. This is right._ I chanted in my mind. Muddy tracks were helpful, but I also had to get creative. I veered left, my tires squealing. Frantic drivers created chaos. A crashed motorist lead me to another left. Then another one lead me right.

Muddy tracks? Yes. The waiters must have dragged Heatwave into one of the self-driving limos, zapped the AI, and dashed away. Since the grass still hadn't dried from the last day it rained and the limos were all parked in a grassy area, the beeline for the road made muddy streaks in their wake. I already lost time fumbling to start my alt but I was hoping they didn't have too much of a head start.

I figured he had a minute or two on me, but I knew that every second could count. Especially since it was a completely reckless driver

A spilled dumpster with a massive dent made me veer right again. I was on the other side of the island now.

 _This is right. This is right._

My team would find Heatwave even if I didn't. They knew something wasn't right. With 12 people looking, he was going to be fine.

A muddy limo was parked outside a rickety old building. Bingo.

I shut off my lights and I got closer. There were tread marks were the bots had tried to drag Heatwave into a building. He must have been unconscious or already dead because they succeeded.

I changed into a new set of clothes as quickly as I could. Not only was I really getting uncomfortable in the dress, but I knew I wasn't going to get anything done stumbling around in it. Once I was done, I grabbed a flashlight and sprinted into the shack, hoping he would be there. I swung open the large oak doors and looked inside...he wasn't.

Panic welled up in my chest and I started to search frantically. He wasn't here!

I looked at the walls to see if there were any secret places the robots could hide him, there weren't. I looked in and around the old mining equipment stored there, not a single sign. I tried to remember if there were any other clues that I missed in my rush to get here, but I couldn't think of anything.

I was about to go back and see where I took a wrong turn. Then, I spotted a small pool of blood next to a splintering support beam. I stopped. I had been on Earth long enough to know it was fresh. My stomach started to tie itself into knots. He _was_ injured.

The blood looked like paint smeared on a dark grey canvas. He was moved. I looked around the spot for more clues, but I couldn't find any.

The smear was pointing towards outside the shack again, so I walked out and looked around. My hands were shaking. My eyes darted around frantically. My heart was trying to break free from my ribcage.

 _You know this feeling...you've only had it once before..._

 **CRUNCH**

I yelped and jumped. Then I looked at what I just stepped on. His Commlink.

He was leaving a trail.

Sure enough, when I kept going, I found his tie clip. Then a button. Then two buttons.

The trail lead me to an open clearing. Sand clung to my shoes as I got closer. The ocean waves lapped against the beach and the moon was bright enough for me to see everything. It was beautiful.

The harsh light of the flashlight and the soft light of the moon made it really easy to find his other clues. His tie, a shoe, and drag marks lead me to around most of the beach.

"Hold...still," a hollow and monotone voice ordered from behind me. Instinctively, I didn't. I spun around and came face to face with some sort of taser like thing. I lunged to the side as the robot shot it.

I rolled to take the impact of the ground, stood up, ran at it, and tackled it into the shallow water on the beach. It took a few tries, but after I hit the sensitive spot with the flashlight, the wheels stopped spinning. Then I hit it a few more times and it just stood there glitching as the waterproof shell cracked and let the saltwater seep into its internal components.

17…that meant-

"Not bad." The voice was the same as all of the other server bots, but it felt like something else was talking. It felt like chills were running up and down my back. I tried to pinpoint why it felt so...different. But at the same time...I was also trying to pinpoint why it felt so...familiar.

I turned around and saw the robot. While I was standing on the wet sand, he was standing close to the path that lead up to the shack. Covered in wet sand, Heatwave laid right next to him. He looked like he was fighting to stay awake. Even from this distance, I could tell that his injuries were very extensive. He wouldn't be any help anytime soon.

I started to walk towards him, but #18 held a taser like object of his own. Siren had told me about them when we got back from the mission with the dogs. And whenever he pressed the button, the stick crackled with electricity. But what was different was it was much larger than the one Siren had...and it looked from this distance like it had a lot more bite.

"Put down that stick and I'll show you I can do better." I raised my hands. I didn't know how much range it things had. And I knew if they didn't have any range anyway, it wouldn't matter. One sharp turn and Heatwave would be stabbed with Primus knows how much force or current.

"All I need is a few samples...of your blood." This voice was a lot less monotone, a lot more aware.

Why does it sound so familiar?

"You could probably bathe in the amount of blood people lost to the party by getting beat up by your buddies. Why not take theirs?"

He was silent… then answered: "None of those vermin have the blood that you do… Or for that matter… Your team does."

"Why?"

He ignored me and aimed the taser at Heatwave.

"You are a medic, are you not?"

I didn't answer, but apparently, the question was more of a statement.

"Then be a good doctor and draw some blood for me… Then, I will leave this pathetic body and island alone."

A million questions popped into my head at once. What was he going to do with that blood? What would a robot need blood for? I didn't want to find out why the hard way, so I tried to find a way to get him before he could hurt Heatwave.

"I need tools," I said, exaggerating the worry in my tone. _It looks like it's wheels for two caked in sand and mud...to do much high-speed travel…_

"I have sufficient tools for you to do your job," it said coldly. _The arm that was holding the taser, it's left, looks just slightly lower than the other one._

"Are they sterilized?" _There was a visible cracking on its chest panels._ The ocean waves were still caressing my ankles and he looked like he was only a few yards away.

"Just do as I say and no one gets hurt."

"I sincerely doubt that." Its optic seemed to glow with hatred.

"DO AS I SAY OR YOU CAN START SAYING GOODBYE!"

"Rico-c-chet…"Heatwave said weakly. My attention and #18s attention snapped to him.

"Take care… Of my team for me."

My heart skipped a beat, my body went cold, and my stomach dropped down to my sand-covered feet.

" _Take care of our sisters for me..."_

Multiple things happened at once. Heatwave grabbed at the taser, the robot jerked back, and I ran forward. The taser was ripped from the robot's grasp when I tackled it, but I knew it still could have been dangerous.

The robot didn't seem to have been built the same way as the others. It spun and knocked me onto my back before I could reach Heatwave. It grabbed me by the hair and struck me in the stomach and chest with his other servo. Fresh pain exploded with each blow.

I was powerless. I knew there wasn't anything I could do to defend myself, save for putting my hands up and hope.

I tried to pull away from #18 fist, but he didn't let me go. And having no traction in the sand didn't help either.

Heatwave, who was barely standing up on his own, whipped the bot around to face him. The shock from the pull made #18 Drop me. I got a face full of sand but compared to another fist to the gut, it wasn't bad.

When I got myself to look up, Heatwave was holding the taser and the robot was on the ground.

I whimpered from the pain I was in. My head felt like it was being dented and then undented, my scalp still flared from my hair having been pulled so harshly, my entire body ached from each punch. Heatwave looked at me and was about to call out my name when the robot rolled forward, straight at him.

Time seemed to slow down. Every single click on the gear in the robot filled my ears. Every single breath Heatwave and I were taking seemed like the only other sound. The foam of the ocean folded over itself in slow motion. And all of my other senses went numb.

 _You know this feeling… You've only felt it once before…_

The robot charged and struck Heatwave in the side, the deafening crack and pop sounded off into the night. Heatwave's screams of agony mixed with the machine's roar of its motors. And in one fluid motion, it grabbed the taser from Heatwave's hands, spun it's torso, using his hips as a pivot, and stabbed Heatwave in the gut.

The sickening sound of a sword being sheathed into flesh canceled every other noise. Heatwave's eyes widened.

 _Click._

Heatwave's body convulsed, the arc of electricity making every little fiber in his body spasm. Bright red burns blistered to life on his skin. A trail of blood leaked from the stab wound.

Everything went red.

I don't remember what happened first, his collapse or the robot being kicked with all my might into the water. The robot experienced its own form of electrocution, but I knew this was not the time to be concerned with revenge.

The taser was off but the damage had been done. Heatwave wasn't moving.

* * *

 **Alright that's the end of this story! I hope you all liked it and-**

 **Nah, I'm just messing around with you...or am I? Stay tuned to find out!**

 **Stay not sick...and anybody this is right now...get better. We need you here.**


	19. Medic!

**I thought I would update you guys early since the last chap had a cliffy. I know this story has a lot of them. I'M SO EVIL! MWAHAHAHAHA! Anyway...enjoy this chap.**

* * *

Chapter Nineteen: Medic!

My blood must have been replaced with adrenalin because I grabbed Heatwave, hauled him over my shoulder (making sure my shoulder was putting pressure on his wound), and sprinted over to my alt without feeling any of my pain or soreness. There was only one thing on my mind. _Help Heatwave._

Once I got to my alt, I placed Heatwave gentilly on the ground and ripped my alts back doors open. I grabbed the stretcher and threw it on the ground.

 _Please don't be gone, please don't be gone…_

I rolled him onto it. Since it was usually a two-person chore, I struggled to get the stretcher into the ambulance, but I got him in eventually.

 _Sterile environment: less likely to get an infection._

I ripped open his shirt, sending what was left of his buttons everywhere. I had to stop myself from gagging from the extent of the wound.

His skin, which was normally tan and smooth, was a blistering black, blue, and red. Blood spread like cosmic rust on his shirt, even after I took it off. The white vanished and all was left was crimson. His chest looked caved in some places and his fingers and hands all showed defensive (or given the situation at the party, offensive) wounds like bruises and cuts. Where he wasn't swelling, he was bruised or burned.

I had no idea what I had to do first…

 _Prioritize_

The burns would need to be treated, but if he bled out before we got to the hospital, the only place he would need to go was the morgue.

I got to work.

Since the stretcher was already elevating him upright, I put on some gloves and grabbed some gauze. I put the gauze onto the two slits and pushed, hard. I expected him to at least groan, but he didn't. He was out for sure. I checked for a pulse and made sure he was breathing. There was almost nothing.

I grabbed my commlink and put a box of tools over it so it would hold down the button that would let me talk.

"Ricochet to anyone who's listening. I found Heatwave! I repeat, I found Heatwave!" I shouted. I knocked the box off and continued to apply pressure. I fumbled around for some more gauze. I calculated he must have lost 2 pints of blood (on the low end). If he lost any more, it could be dangerous.

 _We need to hurry._

"Ricochet? Where are you?" Chief finally called.

I grabbed my comm said "I'm...I don't know. I'm by the ocean near a very old building. It has a lot of rusted machinery. I think it might have been for mining, but I'm not sure. I need you to clear a room in the hospital for me. Have a team of doctors ready if you can."

"If it isn't too serious he will have to wait. We are packed up here." Dani said with a hint of agitation. Her tone didn't sit well with me.

"Is a stab wound to the abdomen, a second-degree electrical burn covering the torso, at least two pints of blood loss, 3 broken ribs, 3 cracked ribs, and possibly a risk of a large infection serious enough for you, Dani?" I hissed, adding onto the mental list of things I needed to do as I analyzed him.

"Jesus Christ," Kade said.

"I can't take care of him and drive at the same time."

"I'm the closest to you guys, hold on," Kade responded.

I turned to get some dry sterile dressing and started my alt. I turned the heat all the way up. I need to keep him warm and dress his burns. All while applying pressure on his wound. I was really missing my extra hands right about now.

After a minute, bright lights shone through the windshield. Next came the sound of squealing tires.

The front door opened and Kade jumped in. He only had time to close the door before he slammed on the gas, throwing me backward. I crawled my way back to Heatwave.

 _Pulse...check._

 _Breathing…_

 _..._

 _Check._

Kade was an obnoxious driver. Hoonking and drifting into turns like we were on a race track, but I was able to keep Heatwave stable while he worked. I struggled to dress the burns, but I still was able to keep him from bleeding out.

We finally lurched to a stop and the doors were immediately pulled open, revealing a team of nurses and doctors.

 _Guess it was serious enough after all._

I helped them get him on the ground, and they wheeled him off to the emergency room. I followed them into the small, three-story building. So did Kade. I almost didn't recognize his face with all of the concern on it.

We stopped following them when the ER doors with the friendly STAFF ONLY sign closed. Behind the glass doors was a hall that was so barren and bright, it almost felt threatening. I touched the glass, smearing it with blood.

I felt a gentle hand rest on my shoulder.

"We've done everything we can for him," Kade said softly. I knew he was just trying to help, but I couldn't help but feel angry at him. Angry, then sad, then angry again...

"Speak for yourself" I whispered eventually. He started to pull me away from the doors. I let him.

When I met up with my team outside of the hospital, I could tell they had their fair share of "fun" tonight. They were all in their spare clothes they brought to the party and all wore the same worried and tired expression. I couldn't even feel the worriedness anymore. I just felt numb.

A rhythmic pulse throbbed on the back of my head, not painful, but not pleasant either. My eyes watered, but more from the harsh winds stinging them than from the harsh night's events. The world just seemed to be a flame in the wind. Flickering and growing thinner and fading faster as the wind grew harsher.

I felt like I wanted to run, but I was a few tons too heavy. My chest felt like it was constricting.

I don't remember much of what happened after. I remember being told through hushed voices I was in no condition to drive and I looked like I had an accident with a gallon of kool-aid. I remember a doctor with a really large nose came right up to me and examined me. He urged Chief to let me stay and get cleared. I remember feeling warm, delicate hands guiding me to an older looking police car. The one that Chief brought to the party.

"Just in case we need to have another set of wheels," He had joked eons ago. The warm lights and sounds of the party drifted into my thoughts. Chief's voice also floated in and out of my focus.

" _Shock...out...blood...no...tired...tomorrow…status...make...night...bye."_

Then the world went dark.

* Cody's P.O.V *

Everyone was worried sick before dad came down the lift. Dani, Kade, and Graham had already gone upstairs to go to bed, but everyone else stayed in the hanger. The moment the car door opened, the room erupted into a roar of questions and half-hearted demands.

Dad brought his finger to his lips and pointed to the back seat where Ricochet was. He mouthed _sleeping._

That only turned down the volume of everyone's worry.

"Heatwave is stable for now. He also hasn't woken up yet so right now it looks like he is going to need a few weeks to recover. The doctors said they think there isn't going to be anything permanent, but they'll know more after a few more tests. "

Everyone looked relieved and whispered excitedly.

"What about Ricochet? Did the doctors say anything about her?"

"She looks like she's in shock. It's nothing serious, and it will go away as everything calms down. Dr. Blum wanted her to stay the night, but since she doesn't have any really concerning injuries, she couldn't. The entire hospital is full. And although she looks terrible, she's only bruised. Nothing's broken or sprained. When the hospital empties out a little, well get her a check-up."

He opened the back door and picked her up. She didn't look light, but dad carried her to her cot anyway.

"I'll change her," Star said. Siren and Sky followed silently to help.

My dad looked at me and smiled warmly.

"Go to bed, Cody. We should all get some sleep."

I nodded and glanced back at Ricochet. Her voice from the night I showed her the clearing echoed in my mind.

 _I promise._

I felt a chill trickle down my spine as I turned to leave.

 _I promise._

* * *

 **Would this qualify as a cliffhanger? IDK.**

 **This is definitely turning out different than the first try at this story huh? I like this way more. A lot less dramatic in my opinion (in some ways).**

 **Hoped you like it! Like I said in many chapters, I will be editing this like CRAZY after I am done with it. Like...if you were to compare this to a car in an auto shop, I would be keeping the frame and replacing everything else. If you have any suggestions on what I should change/improve/add, please let me know. Alright...stay safe! Stay healthy! And for those of you in an online school, stay smart! Peace.**


	20. Mercy

**This is the last chapter. I wanted to crank it out before summer officially begins for me so I can dedicate it to writing the next installment/edit this one to perfection. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter Twenty: Mercy

* Ricochet's P.O.V *

If waking up yesterday was a mistake, I didn't know what this was. Moving was painful. Staying still was painful. Everything. Was. Painful.

Before I came to for good though, I must have woken up several times.

The first time I could recall, Sky was sitting by my legs and was talking with Dani and Blades in a harsh whisper. I could hear them, but they might as well have been speaking a language I didn't know. Nothing they were saying made any sense. I passed back out.

The second time, I was alone, but there was something on my forehead. I figured it was a wet cloth, but I didn't see why I needed it. I also felt cold, like I was covered in ice. It felt nice, but it gave me a huge chill. I went back to sleep again.

The last time, Sky and Siren were talking behind me.

" _What do you think happened? I mean...what could have possibly done that to the both of them?"_ Sky asked.

" _Oh so now you're asking?"_ Siren hissed.

" _I'm sorry! I figured you might have used your handy-dandy crime-solving magic to help find out before one of them dies!"_

" _There was nothing at the mines that showed what happened! The cameras were out! And stop talking like that. They aren't going to die!"_

" _Like you would know Miss I-haven't-looked-to-see-what-happened-to-them."_

" _You're so dramatic!"_

" _Am not!"_

" _Am too!"_

" _Am not!"_

I fell back asleep before I could muster the will power to smack them both over the head.

When I woke up for good, I could smell coffee and pancakes.

My stomach roared and I accidentally scared Boulder and Chase, who were playing a game of "chess" beside me.

"Sorry," I said weakly.

"Ricochet! Are you all alright? Do you need anything?!" Blades shouted from across the room. My ears rang from his loudness.

"I'm fine. I just need you to stay quiet a little. I'm getting a headache." He apologized and quickly went upstairs. Everyone must have scrambled to get down to see me when he said I was up. They sure made a lot of noise doing it

Before I could even move to get up, everyone surrounded me and was asking me a hundred questions at once.

"What happened to you guys?"

"How did you know where Heatwave was?"

"Did you get the last waiter?"

"Where did you get all these bruises?"

It took all my willpower not to shout at them to stop, but luckily Chief was there to do it for me. They quieted down reluctantly. My stomach growled again.

"Will you tell us while you're eating?" Chief asked. I nodded and tried to stand up, but I nearly fainted from the effort. I felt a dozen hands help me up and stabilize me.

"It looks like the bruises aren't as bad as they were last night…" Sky said to Dani. She rolled her eyes. When we all got upstairs, I was served a huge plate of food and everyone looked at me expectantly.

I explained how I figured out he was at the mines, how I found him and the last two bots on the beach, and how I was able to take one out. I explained how the last robot was demanding I take Heatwave's blood and I explained everything leading up to Kade picking me up. I left out the "take care of my team for me'' detail. I figured that was something that would be too painful for _everyone_ to hear.

Then they told me I slept for a whole day. The dance was a day ago already. I asked them why they didn't try to wake me up...Sky said they knew better than to do that.

"How's Heatwave?" I asked. Silence flooded the room.

"He's alive, but he isn't...well...he isn't awake. The doctors ran a few tests on him and...you were right. 3 broken and 3 fractured ribs, two pretty deep stab wounds, a lot of blood loss, and a concussion. Oh, and lots of burns."

I couldn't eat the rest of my plate. I got up and stood slowly.

"Where do you think you are going?"

"Kade and I are going to get his truck from the beach...right Kade?"

He seemed to catch on.

"Right! I _completely_ forgot!"

"Ricochet! You are not driving!" Star called out. She got up to chase after me.

"Only on the way back." Kade went down the fire pole and I followed. Star screamed after me, but I didn't stop. Kade got on the driver's side of my ambulance (I had to bite my tongue to not yell at him) and I became a passenger in my alt.

Once we were on the road, I realized he wasn't that bad of a driver, he just wasn't a slow one. With how far above the speed limit he was you would have guessed there was a Con behind us. Along the way, he told me we had to sign him under a human name. Cody said AJ before anyone could think of anything else.

"AJ?" I asked. I couldn't help but smile.

"Yeah, I couldn't think of a good one for him fast enough…"

"Am I going to need a human name?"

"Probably not, just as long as you don't talk to anybody."

"Do you think he'll be up?" My smile faded.

"Probably. He's had his beauty sleep. Besides, I'd be disappointed the first time I read your mind, it'd be all for nothing!" I rolled my eyes

We got to the hospital fairly quickly. Kade checked in with the man at the front desk and asked what room Heatwave was in. He said 207.

They seemed to know each other pretty well. So after the conversation took a turn into the sports category (a game they called "soccer"), I knew I wasn't going to see anyone today if I didn't speak up now.

"Can I go see him?"

"Yeah. You can go ahead," The man said.

"I'll be in in a bit. Go on without me," Kade said, turning his attention back to his buddy.

I followed the signs on the walls to where the rooms were, and after two wrong turns, I came up onto a closed door. Not knowing what else to do, I knocked.

A plump, short, dark-skinned woman in bright pink scrubs opened the door and looked at me with annoyance written all over her face.

"Who are ya?" She said with an accent I almost didn't understand.

"I'm here to see...AJ," I said. "Is this his room?"

"Ya with the Burnses?" She pronounced the S's like they were Z's and "the" like "da".

"I'm their medic," I answered.

"The one who got him here?" She pointed behind her.

"Yes."

"Alright. I thought I saw ya that night, but I wasn't sure. Ya look a lot better...ya know...now that you ain't got all that blood on ya." She opened the door more and stepped out into the hall. "He just woke up. I don't wanna hear a single weird thing out uh that room. Ya hear?"

I nodded.

I walked in and the first thing I saw was the huge amounts of electronics hanging off of him. Monitors, IV drips, and a bunch of remotes hung all around him. Then right next to him was something called a "crash cart". It was full of drugs and equipment ready to be used if his condition plummeted.

His face was covered in scratches and bandages. And what skin wasn't covered, all you could see was bruises and cuts. His hair was completely covered by the bandages on his head, his arms were completely covered in gauze, and his body was covered in blank white blankets. His eyes were sealed shut. He breathed ever so slightly.

I paused in the doorway and suddenly felt nervous. First I thought it was because of the crash cart. The fact that the doctors even believed that he would need it frightened me.

But then I knew it was because I had no idea what I would say or do. " _How are you feeling?"_ would probably be a stupid question...And sitting down and holding his hand would be weird. So I just said what came naturally.

"You enjoying your beauty sleep Hot Head? You sure needed it," I said softly. He heard me.

"Ricochet?" He groggily asked. He opened his eyes so they looked like slits. He winced when he tried to talk more.

"No, it's Optimus. Don't mind the voice, I just have a cold." I mimicked a deep voice and coughed to make it more "authentic".

"You're a jerk." He said, his voice hoarse. He coughed, winced at how much it hurt, and coughed some more. Tears streamed down his face involuntarily.

I stepped into the room and looked around some more. Two small green chairs stood next to the bed, a few cards and flowers stood on an oak table from thankful citizens, and a small black TV hung on the wall in front of him. I walked across the room and stood next to his bed, facing him.

"I would ask you how you're feeling, but I think I can guess the answer."

"I feel...fine."

"You're lying," I said. I sat down on the bed. Looking into his now wide-open eyes. "You look terrible."

He closed his eyes and tried to turn away from me. Almost as if he was ashamed he was injured.

"I shouldn't have let this happen Ricochet. I should have thought of a better plan-"

"There wasn't a better plan and you know it," I replied quietly.

"How many people got hurt because we didn't ask for reinforcements? How many people were beaten because we didn't think we could tell them? There must have been a better way. And now? I'm here all burned and...Primus...everything hurts. I-How am I going to get back to protecting this place with..." He nodded to his cocooned body.

I stared at him. Oh, how the tables turn.

My heart ached looking at him. His helpless face and disheartened eyes. Granted, we both were feeling the same thing, but that wasn't something I was used to _seeing_. I was always the one carrying the brunt of the worry for my team. I was always the one here on Earth freaking out about the humans (or at least doing it outwardly). Seeing _Heatwave_ of all people in such a...vulnerable state...I hated it. I wanted to do...to say anything to help him.

So...I decided I would do something completely out of character for me. I decided to take the more...gentle...approach.

"I think you said it best," I tried to put as much softness I could into my voice. "Stuff happens that shouldn't happen, but we need to learn to get past it."

I could tell the softness of my voice surprised him. I inched closer to him, careful to not sit on his hand. My heart started to beat faster. And the heart monitor started to pick up the pace.

I reached out and wiped a tear that was just about to fall off his chin. He stared hard into my eyes as if he was trying to see if I was being genuine with this...new approach. Then he quickly looked away. I wiped off the other tear on his cheek.

I continued. "No one died. No one got permanent injuries. No one will be hurt by that thing again."

I gingerly guided his face to face me again.

"No one." I declared.

With some effort, he moved his hand to touch my own. Our fingers laced together. His eyes glowed with appreciation and something I couldn't identify. Then he closed his eyes and seemed to savor the news…and maybe the contact. I started to feel very warm.

After about a minute, I said: "Kade came with me, so unless you want to be picked on for the rest of your time with him…"

He grunted and slowly let go. Once I had my hand to myself, I backed up and took the green chair closest to him. The heart monitor didn't seem to slow down.

The TV was on and showing the news, muted. The only way I could see what the people were saying was by reading the subtitles.

"This is Hugsly Prescot reporting live to you at the scene of yet another daring rescue from the Burnses!" A short man with thick brown glasses and a very obnoxious suit stood in front of Chase, Siren, Sky, Blades, Dani, and Chief as they finished up what looked like a chase. They had caught two men but stuffed them into the police car before I could even see what they looked like.

He interviewed the group and got a lot of vague answers from everyone. It was the first time I had seen Sky look like she didn't want to talk.

 _Well look at that, the loudest person on this planet is camera shy._ I smiled. I turned on the volume since I was starting to get a headache.

"In other news, in a previous interview with Chief Burns, he stated both the old and the new Rescue Bots have mysteriously malfunctioned and are no longer able to transform into their robot forms. He reassured this reporter that the 8 new rescuers attached to his team were the most capable and willing rescuers he could have recruited.

Including the new firefighter, who is simply known as AJ. As you all know, two days ago when the party was hijacked by an unknown glitch in the technological waiting staff, each of these new rescuers proved their worth. Especially AJ, who helped Clarisse Blum, a 13-year-old track star, from an assault from one of these waiters. After he was able to push her to safety, he was able to deactivate the bot."

"Well would you look at that, you're famous!" I said. His eyes looked glossed over as he stared at the screen.

"However, after he was able to save Miss Blum, he was carried off, injured and no doubt unconscious. Thankfully, their new medic, Rico, was able to bring him to the Griffin Rock Hospital, where he is getting treatment for a variety of wounds. An investigation has been opened to find the cause of AJ's more extensive injuries and to find where the glitch was in the wait staff's program."

"AJ?" He asked. "Rico?"

"It seems we've got new names to get used to as well as bodies." I smiled. "Though, I'm still calling you Hot Head."

He smiled and for the first time, we both were relaxed and not afraid of what the next mission was going to offer.

 _What on Earth could top what we just went through?_

* * *

 **I really enjoyed writing that scene. I really am looking forward to writing more stuff like that in the future. And although I said this is technically the last chapter (people who read the original version of this know what I am talking about here) I still want to add a scene with Virus. It will be the "Epilogue" of this...whatever it is. I will publish the moment I am done writing it and getting over the fact this story comes to a whopping 112 pages in total (on a google doc). Have a good day/night and for the love of God stay healthy and safe during everything going on currently. *distant and virtual hug***


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